


To Fix the Body and Soul

by Scarabee



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, Internal Conflict, M/M, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, Self-Insert, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2020-07-28 20:43:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 22,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20070301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarabee/pseuds/Scarabee
Summary: Jay takes a somewhat shady job as a late night technician at Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rentals because he desperately needs money. The job seems easy enough at first but what Jay doesn't know is that he's about to go on a journey of a lifetime.





	1. Easy Start

Jay stared up at a large intimidating building in the dead of night. He had arrived early, as he always did for any occasion, and felt somewhat hesitant to get closer to Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rentals. All the lights were off inside and no one seemed to be around.  
Jay had answered an ad for the job of a late night technician, a job he was in no way qualified for but in times of desperation called for leaps of faith. Jay had sent in a resume only a day ago and quickly received an email saying he had been hired and that he started work the following night. Jay thought it was strange that he didn't have to go to an interview or any kind of job training for this but he didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. Jay took a deep breath and steeled himself. Fishing the keys to the door he had received out of his pocket he went inside. The inside of the building was almost decrepit. The floor were dirty and everything was dusty. It was like no one had been in here for years. Jay had expected to at least see a janitor or have someone greet him and show him around but he was completely alone. Something about all this wasn't sitting right. Nervously Jay continued forward. In the back of the building away from the main show floor Jay found an old elevator. Jay could only guess that this is where he was supposed to go. Jay entered the elevator. It looked and felt like an unsafe rickety industrial elevator. Pipes, valves, buttons, vents, strange looking devices, and colorful posters littered the walls. There were no up and down buttons, only a big red button and a key pad next to the door. Jay pressed the button and the metal doors closed behind him with a rusty squeak. The elevator shuddered and began it's descent.  
The elevator took it's time going down. The wait made Jay progressively more anxious as time went by. Then a robotic voice started speaking above him, making Jay jump slightly.  
"Welcome to the first day of your exciting new career. Whether you were approached at a job fair, read our ad at Screws, Bolts, and Hairpins, or if this is a result of a dare we welcome you. I will be your personal guide to help you get started." The voice said. "I am a model five of the Handyman's Robotics and Unit Repair System. But you can call me HandUnit." HandUnit said. Jay felt immediately better knowing that he wasn't going into this completely blind.  
"Hello HandUnit." Jay greeted. He wasn't sure if HandUnit could answer him back or if he just was an automated voice but he felt it would be rude either way not to say hello.  
"Hello." HandUnit answered. Jay smiled a little with excitement. "Your new career promises challenge, intrigue, and endless janitorial opportunities." HandUnit continued. From the wall a small yellow monitor flipped out in front of Jay. "Please enter your name. This cannot be changed later so please be careful." HandUnit instructed. Jay gazed down at the yellow keypad, it had googly eyes. Aside from the silly googly eyes the keypad seemed to be... broken. A lot of letters were missing from the alphabet and the screen kept glitching in and out. Jay wasn't particular worried. His name was only three letters long. Jay carefully typed out his name and pressed the enter button, but an error message came up.  
"Shit." Jay swore under his breath.  
"It seems you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type and I will auto correct it for you. One moment." HandUnit said. The voice went quiet for a moment. "Welcome! Jello Salad." HandUnit greeted.  
"That's... that's not my name." Jay mumbled quietly. The keypad retracted back into the wall and Jay guessed that was the end of that. He was now Jello Salad.  
As the elevator continued its shaky way downwards Jay wondered how deep down this place was. A loud buzzer went off and the elevator jerked unexpectedly, making Jay nearly lose his footing. Through the multiple windows Jay could see that the elevator was gradually slowing to a stop, the lights flickered. There was a loud clunk and a cheery tune played. The song ended and the lights went out, leaving Jay in darkness.  
"You can now open the elevator using that bright, red, and obvious button. Let's get to work." HandUnit prompted. Jay walked up to the very big red button, his shoes clacking against the metal floor, and pressed it. The door slid open and Jay was faced with a wall covered in caution tape. Jay was confused for a moment before he noticed a small square vent at the base of the wall. He squatted down and looked inside. Was he... supposed to crawl in there? "Let's not waste any more time, we have plenty to do tonight." HandUnit spoke up.  
"Am I... supposed to go into the vent?" Jay asked.  
"Yes." HandUnit responded. Jay frowned as he got down on his hands and knees. He grimaced at the feeling of the greasy dust under his hands. Jay moved through the tight claustrophobic vent. "Allow me to fill this somewhat frightening silence with some lighthearted banter." HandUnit said. "Due to the massive success and even more so the unfortunate closing of Freddy Fazbear's pizza, it was clear that the stage was set, no pun intended, for another contender in children's entertainment." He rattled on. "Unlike most entertainment venues, our robotic entertainers are rented out for private parties during the day and its your job to get the robots back in proper working order before the following morning." HandUnit finished.  
"You'll help me with the fixing thing right?" Jay asked hopefully. Though he tried to keep his voice down his words echoed through the vent.  
"Of course, I am here to assist and guide you in your time here." HandUnit replied. Jay's worries were momentarily put at ease, with HandUnit telling him what to do he could actually pull this job off. Jay crawled forward until he felt a wall in front of him in the dark, he searched around the edges and pulled the door up by a groove at its base. Jay entered a dimly lit room with multiple control panels and screens. Jay dusted off his hands and knees as HandUnit spoke up.  
"You are now in the primary control module. It's actually a crawl space between the two front show rooms. Now, let's get started with your daily tasks." He informed. "View the window to your left." HandUnit said. Jay walked over to the window and leaned over the control panel to gaze into the dark room. He wiped the dust from the window. Before HandUnit could continue talking, Jay curiously pressed the blue button on the keypad next to the window, so he could see. The show room lit up but Jay didn't see anything inside.  
"This is the Ballora Gallery party room and dance studio, encouraging kids to get fit and enjoy pizza. But it seems like Ballora doesn't feel like dancing. Let's give her some motivation, press the red button to administer a controlled shock." HandUnit instructed. Jay reached for the button but hesitated. A controlled shock? That struck Jay as odd. Wouldn't a jolt of electricity do more harm to sensitive robotics than good?  
"We can not continue with our other duties until you give Ballora a controlled shock." HandUnit said after a pause. Jay did what he was told and hit the red button. A light flickered in the Ballora Gallery and the pulsing sound of electricity rang out. That didn't sound very controlled.  
Jay pressed the light again and inside the gallery he saw a humanoid animatronic that looked like a ballet dancer slowly spinning on stage. Beside her were two smaller dancing doll like animatronics.  
"Excellent! Ballora is feeling like her old self again and will be ready to preform again tomorrow. Now view the window to your right." HandUnit said. Jay went over to the other window and turned on the light. No animatronic was on stage.  
"Hey HandUnit, are controlled shocks really necessary?" Jay spoke up.  
"Yes, it is just a way to help give our animatronic entertainers a little spring in their step." HandUnit explained. "Now let's motivate Funtime Foxy with a controlled shock." He said. Jay pressed the red button and sparks showered the Funtime Auditorium. He checked with the light, nothing. Another shock. Still nothing. Jay's finger hovered over the red button. This didn't feel right. But there was nothing else he could do, so he pressed the button again. Another electric shock. Pressing the light, Jay saw a pretty pink and white animatronic fox moving about on a small circular stage, waving to an invisible audience.  
"Looks like Funtime Foxy is in perfect working order, great job!" HandUnit praised. Jay felt that he didn't really deserve the praise, he didn't do much. He honestly thought that being the late night technician would see him doing more hands on work with the animatronics. But he guessed that was just how they did things here, he shrugged it off. HandUnit instructed Jay to crawl through another vent shaft to the Circus Gallery control module ahead of him. Jay begrudgingly got down on his hands and knees again with a huff and clambered into the vent.  
"Who designed this place? Why couldn't you just have hallways you can walk through instead of crawling through gross vents." Jay grumbled to himself. Jay emerged into another small room with big glass windows and flashing control panels.  
"On the other side of the glass is Circus Baby's Auditorium." HandUnit said. HandUnit didn't even have to prompt Jay this time. He reached over to the elevated keypad and pressed the light button. The light hummed indicating it was on but Jay couldn't see anything at all. No stage. No animatronic. A pit of dread suddenly formed in Jay's stomach. He didn't know if it was because this place was weirdly creepy or that something was terribly wrong.  
"Looks like a few of the lights are out, but we can fix that later." HandUnit commented. Jay knew what came next, a controlled shock. Jay pressed the button trying to forget the sense of foreboding hanging over him. Like Foxy, it took three controlled shocks to get a result, despite Jay not being able to see Circus Baby, HandUnit greeted Baby with praise. Once it was done Jay looked up towards the ceiling where HandUnit's voice emanated.  
"So now what?" He asked.  
"This concludes your duties for your first night on the job. We don't want you to leave overwhelmed otherwise you might not come back!" HandUnit said cheerfully.  
"Wow really?" Jay said.  
"Yes, please leave using the vent behind you and we will see you again tomorrow." HandUnit replied.  
"Well, alright then. Good night." Jay waved goodbye to no one in particular. As Jay made his way back to the vent shaft that lead to the primary control module, he checked his phone. All that only took only about half an hour. It was just the first night but Jay felt good about this. Maybe this wouldn't be so difficult after all!  
Jay knelt down and crawled into the vent shaft, the metal banged and shifted under his weight. But before Jay could get too far, there came a loud thud from directly behind him. Jay jumped, and he stopped suddenly, listening hard to the following silence. For a moment, Jay thought it was simply the vent resettling from supporting his weight until he heard the thud again. It was much closer this time and louder. More thuds and bangs came very quickly until it was above Jay, panicking, Jay began to crawl as fast as he could. The noise followed him until Jay burst out into the primary control module. Jay didn't dare stop, he quickly scrambled into the next vent shaft back to the elevator. As soon as Jay got to his feet he slammed his hand on the big red button. He panted heavily, the rusty doors slid closed with a squeal and the elevator shook as it took him back to the surface.

Jay got home completely exhausted. He threw the bag that he brought with him, though he hadn't needed it this time, next to the couch. Jay flopped onto the couch and sighed heavily. That entire experience had taken a lot more out of him than he realized. The strange noise he heard in the vents unnerved him, he wanted to think there was a logically explanation for what he heard but the more he thought about it the more nervous he became. Jay wondered what tomorrow night would bring him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here we GOOOOOOOO!! the first chapter of my self insert fnaf fic is here because WHY NOT?? IT'S 2019 CRINGE CULTURE IS DEAD AND I CAN DO WHAT I WANT  
this um... might be a long one folks idk fhdgd i pray i'll be able to actually finish it cause there is A LOT of stuff i have planned and A LOT of characters i want to add and write
> 
> i still have no idea what to tag stuff soooo hfdgjh i'll probably add characters and tags as they appear i guess?? this is how this works right?? idk i'm sorry fdvgdvg


	2. Cross My Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay returns for his second night on the job and finds out he signed up for more than he bargained for. Jay makes a promise.

Jay entered the elevator for his second night of work. It was only night two but he had already become accustomed to the shaky sway of the service elevator. Jay adjusted the bag on his shoulders. He had brought his backpack again, this time equipped with a lunch. Jay didn't know how long this night would last but if yesterday was just orientation then today is when the real work would begin. He hoped he would have time to get a break and eat later. Or somewhere to store his things. Since he didn't find any kind of employee break room in the building on the surface.  
"Hello HandUnit." Jay greeted.  
"Hello and welcome back for another night of intellectual stimulation, pivotal career choices, and self-reflection on past mistakes." HandUnit greeted.  
"Uhh ok?" Jay replied slowly.  
"We're committed to creating a unique and fulfilling work experience. One part of that commitment is ensuring that you don't get tired of the voice that you are hearing right now." HandUnit went on. A yellow keypad flipped out of the wall in front of Jay and he flinched. He was still a little on edge from yesterday. Jay calmed himself and looked at the glitchy keypad. "Using the keypad, select a new companion voice. For male press 1, for female press 2. For text only press 3." HandUnit instructed. And of course there were no numbers on the keypad at all. Jay kind of didn't really want to change HandUnit's voice, he thought it was nice the way it was and he had only been working for two days so changing it wasn't really necessary.  
"Do I have to? I like your voice the way it is." Jay spoke up. HandUnit was quiet and didn't respond for a moment.  
"If you would like to keep the default option press 4." HandUnit said. Jay smiled. But there were still no numbers on screen. Jay shrugged and pressed a random button the keypad. The screen froze and begun to heavily glitch. Jay put his hands up and took a small step back.  
"I didn't break it." He said aloud.  
"It seems you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type and I will auto correct it for you." HandUnit said. Jay waited expectantly. It most likely would be something weird. "Thank you for choosing Posh English Man." HandUnit finished. Jay snorted. He couldn't wait for HandUnit to start talking again.  
The elevator slowed down as it neared its destination and the lights flickered. There came a strange noise. An echoing metallic sound coming from the vent shafts in the elevator. Jay nervously backed up to the wall, his eyes darting around anxiously looking for the source of the sound. The elevator jolted as it touched down. A pleasant jingle played.  
"We have reached our destination, it's time to burn that midnight oil and whatnot! Much to do, much to do!" HandUnit said in a very thick posh British accent. Jay snorted again.  
"I take what I said back, I like this voice much better." He chuckled. Jay pulled the sleeves of his button up over his hands and crawled into the vent. He shuffled forward quietly until HandUnit broke the silence.  
"I've got a tale for you old boy, it is quite morbid but some time ago they discovered a body in this very vent shaft! Poor bastard." HandUnit said. Jay flinched and stopped immediately.  
"What?!" He shouted. "Th-there's no way that's true!" Jay stuttered. His voice reverberated off the walls of the vent and carried onward.  
"It's as true as the plague my boy." HandUnit said. Jay really didn't want to know what happened to the person that was found in this vent, he crawled faster, suddenly very aware of what his hands were touching, until he reached the primary control module. HandUnit seemed to always say strange things, Jay wanted to believe that he was just programmed with a lot of sarcasm and weird morbid jokes. This place was creepy but no one had died here right?  
Jay dusted himself off and went over to the window over looking the Ballora Gallery. Pressing the button illuminated the empty stage, but a large shadow of a figure was cast over the room. The same feeling of unease returned to Jay quickly.  
"Now this won't do at all! You there, put that robot in her place and give her a hearty zap!" HandUnit commanded. Jay paused, he frowned as he looked between the control panel the Ballora Gallery. "Well? What are you waiting for? Why do you hesitate?" HandUnit asked. Jay shuffled uncomfortably. He looked around the room, as the strange sensation of being watched came over him.  
"This... doesn't feel right, I don't like it. It makes me feel really bad." Jay said quietly. HandUnit scoffed.  
"Poppycock, don't be so ridiculous! They feel no pain, they are nothing but soulless automatons! Be a man and do your job." He harrumphed. Jay shot a glare at the ceiling, he didn't like this HandUnit anymore.  
"Well so are you." He muttered under his breath. Jay sighed and quickly pressed the controlled shock button before he could think too much about it. Lights inside the Ballora Gallery flickered from the high voltage and sparks flew. Jay went to check on Ballora again but he was stopped by the sound of slow warbled speech coming from the intercom. It took Jay a moment to realize that it was HandUnit's voice. Something was wrong. "HandUnit?" Jay called uncertainly. HandUnit didn't answer and the unintelligible tone continued. Jay tried to press the blue light button but it didn't respond. Fear began to take hold of Jay, he didn't know what to do. Then as quickly as it began, it stopped, and HandUnit returned to normal.  
"Let's take a look at Foxy, make sure he is well prepared his performance tomorrow!" HandUnit said.  
"O-ok?" Jay squeaked. "Is everything ok, HandUnit?" He asked nervously. But he got no response from the AI. Jay frowned worriedly and went to the other window, he pressed the light button and just like in the Ballora Gallery the shadow of Funtime Foxy loomed ominously over the stage.  
"Great... Great...." HandUnit said in a faltering distorted voice. Jay shrunk back from the window and looked around in panic.  
"HandUnit?" He piped up. His heart was going a mile a minute. There was silence for a second.  
"There seems to have been a problem with the voice synthesizer. Default settings have been restored." HandUnit said. "Please proceed ahead of you to Circus Baby's Auditorium." He instructed.  
"But what about..?" Jay trailed off timidly. He knew HandUnit wouldn't answer so Jay's question died in his throat. He tried to look in on Foxy again but the button stopped working. Jay took a few deep breaths in attempt to calm himself down but they quickly devolved into hyperventilating.  
"Please proceed to Circus Baby's Auditorium." HandUnit repeated.  
"I'm going!" Jay huffed. Jay got down on his hands and knees and hastily crept into the vent.  
He inched along slowly, trying to make the least amount of noise possible. The motion trigger went off and Jay stopped in his tracks. He waited and listened hard to the silence. Jay didn't know why he was so afraid, HandUnit was just a little buggy, so what? This place was falling apart so he didn't blame HandUnit for acting strangely, who knows how long he had been down here. Despite his reasoning, Jay still had a pang of anxiety in his chest. He continued to crawl, quicker this time, until he came out to Circus Control.  
"Circus Baby had a busy day today, let's check the light and make sure she's in proper working order." HandUnit said. Jay walked up to the raised control pad. The light turned on but he couldn't see anything. Well of course, they still hadn't fixed the light from yesterday. Jay frowned. He knew what came next, a controlled shock. "Oh Circus Baby, we're not here to play hide and seek! Let's encourage Baby to come out with a controlled shock." HandUnit suggested.  
"How come we have to 'encourage' the animatronics to stay on their stages? Shouldn't they just stay there by themselves?" Jay asked curiously. A lot of what HandUnit was telling him didn't add up, he wanted answers. Also he wanted to stall for time to avoid administering another controlled shock for as long as possible.  
"Our animatronic entertainers are often still excited by their day out and are full of energy, they are somewhat rebellious and don't want to remain on stage all night." HandUnit answered. Rebellious? That was a strange word choice. If they were "soulless automatons" as HandUnit put it, why would they want to rebel? Unless... they were being mistreated. Jay looked at the room around him. This place was a mess, literally. Everything was broken or was in dire need of repair. The whole deal with control shocking these animatronics never sat well with him, Jay wasn't sure if it was because he was by nature very empathetic or if it was just plain wrong from a technical standpoint.  
"Do I have to?" Jay asked.  
"Yes, or else... we can not continue with your other duties. We have a lot to do tonight." HandUnit replied. "Administer a controlled shock." He said. Jay pouted and took a deep breath. His hand moved to the red button and he hesitated yet again. Jay jabbed the button, just wanting to get it over with so he could go home. But nothing happened. In confusion, Jay pressed the button a second time only to get the same result. There was no sound of electricity or sparks. Jay felt a strange sense of relief.  
"Oh boy, I guess it's broken." He shrugged. "I guess we should move on to something else!" Jay laughed a little.  
"There seems to be a power malfunction that is effecting our ability to properly motivate Baby. Please standby while I reboot the system, I will be offline momentarily during this process." HandUnit informed. Jay's brows furrowed in concern.  
"O-ok?" He said.  
"Various other systems may be offline as well, such as security doors, vent locks, and oxygen." HandUnit said. Jay cracked a little, somewhat worried, smile.  
"Ok, very funny." He chuckled awkwardly. "Oxygen isn't really connected to the power, right?" Jay asked. HandUnit ignored Jay's question.  
"Commencing system restart."  
"Wait no! What do you mean by 'vent locks' and 'oxygen'!? Don't leave me!" Jay exclaimed. The lights went off and Jay was suddenly left in complete darkness. Jay stood rigid, he gripped his shirt tightly in pure terror. "HandUnit? HandUnit where are you!? Please come back!" Jay begged. No one answered. _It's ok! He was safe, there is nothing here that could hurt him._ Jay told himself. He only had to wait until HandUnit came back from fixing the problem then everything would be ok! Jay waited tensely. A sound suddenly cut through the thick silence, an audio trigger went off. Then multiple audio triggers went off in rapid succession, getting closer and closer to Jay's location. Jay whipped around in the dark and stared hard at where the vent shaft was in terror. Something was coming. Jay backed up against the control panel, his eyes straining to see through the darkness, there was no where to go. No where to hide. Jay heard something shuffling in the vent coming towards him. Tears started to well up in his eyes, he didn't want to die. There was a long stretch of agonizing silence.  
"I don't recognize you. You are new." A gentle voice said. Jay jumped and gasped, he panted as he realized he had been holding his breath.  
"W-who are you?" Jay whispered.  
"Hush, there is a space under the desk, someone before you crafted it into a hiding place and it worked for him." The voice continued.  
"W-what's going on!? Who is c-coming after me?!" Jay questioned.  
"There's no time for questions. I recommend you hurry, you will be safe there. Just try not to make eye contact. It will be over soon, they will lose interest." The voice uttered quietly.  
"'They', they who?! Hello? Please don't leave me! Come back!" Jay cried. When Jay was met with no response he quickly knelt down and looked under the desk. Sure enough there was a secret door he hadn't noticed. Jay didn't have time to think, he tore the door open and scrambled inside and sealed himself in. The plastic sliding door was unfortunately riddled with holes so he could still see outside. Jay covered his mouth and squeezed his eyes shut. This couldn't be happening! This had to be a nightmare. But no matter how many times Jay tried to wake himself up he was still stuck under a desk, hiding from an unseen threat. Whatever it was, it came out of the vent shaft and into the room.  
"Hello in there~" A faint voice greeted. Jay bit back a whimper.  
"Someone is inside." Another voice whispered. Jay wasn't religious at all but in that moment he prayed to any god that was listening to save his life. Jay flinched and opened his eyes when something metal started striking the door of his hiding place.  
"Knock-knock." A different voice said. Jay caught a glimpse of a pale blue eye gazing at him through one of the holes in the door. He screwed his eyes shut again immediately, trying to pretend he didn't see it. _Don't make eye contact._  
When a scraping grinding noise started Jay's eyes snapped open to the horrible realization that he had been discovered. What ever it was out there was opening the door to his hiding place. Jay grabbed the sliding door and pulled with all his strength before it could open all the way. Jay struggled, it was so strong. The adrenaline coursing through Jay's body gave him strength he didn't know he had and he slammed the door shut. The creatures outside scrapped against the door to pry it open but Jay held it firmly closed. They were talking to him but Jay could barely hear anything above the blood pounding in his ears.  
"She's watching us." A voice said.  
"We have to leave now." Someone gasped.  
"We will see you again soon." A third voice whispered cheerfully. Then everything went quiet. Jay shuttered and relaxed his death grip just slightly. "She"? Who was the 'she' they were referring too?  
Jay's heart nearly jumped out of his throat when a familiar voice spoke to him in a hurried hushed tone.  
"Listen carefully, when your guide comes back online, he is going to tell you he was unsuccessful and that you must restart the system manually. He will then tell you to crawl through the Ballora Gallery as fast as you can to reach the breaker room. If you follow his instructions, you will die." The voice warned. Jay was starting to feel sick. What kind of place was this?  
"W-what should I d-do?" He choked out.  
"When you crawl through Ballora Gallery go slowly, otherwise she will catch you. She cannot see you and can only listen for your movements. When you hear her music become louder she is drawing near, listening for you. Wait. And be still." The voice advised.  
"P-please, w-who are you?" Jay whimpered. There was a pause.  
"A friend." The voice said gently. The speakers in the room outside crackled back to life, cutting off the mysterious voice as HandUnit came back online.  
"Thank you for your patience. It seems that the power system cannot be restarted automatically, you will need to restart the power system manually." HandUnit informed. Jay couldn't believe it. It was just like the voice said. How many times had this happened before? Jay remembered HandUnit joking about a dead body being found in the vent shafts and the voice said someone else before him had made the hiding place under the desk. Did the person before him make it out of here? How many people have died in this place? All the questions made a chill go up Jay's spine.  
"Please return to the primary control module." HandUnit said.  
Jay waited a minute before he even attempted to peek out from his hiding spot, in reality he was too terrified to move. But he couldn't hide here forever. Those things could come back and he might not be so lucky in fighting them off next time. Jay slid the door open, it stuck in place and he had to kick it to get it to open fully. He crawled out cautiously, looking around for any clues of what had been in the Circus Baby Auditorium with him. There was no trace, nothing was out of place or disturbed. Jay took a deep breath to calm himself down and crawled along the floor into the vent shaft. He reemerged in the primary control module. Jay stood up and dusted himself off, he glanced anxiously at the Ballora Gallery vent shaft.  
"You will now be required to crawl through the Ballora Gallery using the vent to your left to reach the breaker room. It is recommended that you stay low to the ground and reach the other side as fast as possible, as to not disturb Ballora." HandUnit said.  
"A-are you... sure that's the right thing to do?" Jay asked hopefully.  
"Yes, it recommended for your safety that you do not disturb Ballora." HandUnit answered. Jay didn't understand. Why would HandUnit give him bad advice? Wasn't he supposed to... y'know help? "I will deactivate myself temporarily as not to create an auditory disturbance." He said.  
"Again!?" Jay sputtered.  
"Deactivating."  
"No you can't do that again!! Come back here, you're supposed to help me!" Jay demanded. But HandUnit was already gone. Jay groaned angrily and gripped his black hair in frustration. Jay tried to breath, but his breaths grew heavy and did nothing to push down his anger. "Fuck this, actually." He growled. He simply had to follow the voice's instructions, then he would be ok. Hopefully. Jay reluctantly got down on his knees and gazed into the dark Ballora Gallery vent shaft, distant eerie music echoed from within. Jay whimpered, his anger turning back to fear. He climbed inside, the vent door slamming shut behind him, and entered another room. There before him, a flashlight was waiting. Jay waited a moment, listening hard to the surrounding silence before reaching for the flashlight. It clicked on but Jay kept it pointed to the floor. Not getting off his hands and knees, Jay crept forward slowly. Somewhere deeper in the room Jay could hear gentle music playing. Jay moved as quietly as possible across the room, he could see the breaker room softly lit by fluorescent lights on the other side. He was so close. Jay inched forward but stopped dead as the sound of music suddenly became louder behind him. Jay wanted to scream but he held his breath and huddle down on the floor, covering his head. The music lingered for a moment but then drew distant again. Jay glanced around quickly and crawled forward as the panic started to rise in his chest. No, he had to go slowly! If he rushed Ballora would hear him. Jay paused cautiously and listened. The music moved around the room, growing closer and then moving farther away. She was searching for him.  
Then the music stopped momentarily. Jay heard someone singing a song far away but he could barely make out the melody or words. It carried and echoed off the walls and high ceiling all around him. Maybe Ballora had lost interest! Jay kept going, he was almost there!  
"It seems you are taking a long time, please proceed as quickly and as quietly as possible." HandUnit boomed. Jay nearly jumped out of his skin. He swore instinctively out loud and quickly slapped a hand over his mouth. Was HandUnit trying to get him killed?! Jay huddled down again and waited despite HandUnit's directions. There was no noise or music. Jay raised his head and looked around. Nothing. He hesitantly kept going. The door was right there, Jay had half a mind to get up and make a dash for the door but his gut told him that was a bad idea. Without warning, the familiar eerie music that signaled Ballora's presence filled Jay's ears. Jay froze in terror as a figure twirled gracefully in front of him, crossing directly in his path to the door. Jay squeezed his eyes shut and waited until the music faded away into the distance. His entire body was shaking now. Every bone in Jay's body was screaming to run. And he listened to that impulse. Jay scrambled to his feet and raced to the breaker room door as fast as his legs would carry him. Jay slammed against the door as the pleasant music reared up behind him, he fiddled with the handle and slammed the door shut as soon as he got inside. Jay braced himself against the door and he panted hard, when nothing else happened after a moment he finally relaxed. Unsurprisingly, the breaker room was pitch black. With shaky hands Jay clumsily struggled to turn on his flashlight again.  
"C'mon... c'mon." Jay whispered. The flashlight finally clicked on and Jay took a look around. Well this place was a fire hazard. There were cables and electrical coils all over the place, a lot were freely streaming down from the ceiling. The sparks that rained down every so often briefly gave Jay a glimpse at the surrounding room. Jay really wondered how this place didn't burn down already.  
"You may now interface with the breaker control box. Using the interface may disrupt nearby electronics, if you feel you are in danger feel free to disconnect the interface temporarily until it is safe to reconnect." HandUnit said.  
"Great..." Jay muttered. Jay sat down with a groan next to the breaker box on a large wooden crate where a slim tablet rested in a holder on the wall. Also sitting on the crate was an old cassette player. Reaching into his pocket Jay pulled out his phone, he might as well take advantage of this brief pause from terror and running for his life to check the time. It was only 1:46 AM. Man, hiding from and being hunted by killer robots really didn't make time go any faster huh?  
Jay straightened up and took the tablet off the wall. The tablet itself was connected to the power control box via some thick cables. It was dusty and looked very worn down but it luckily still worked by some miracle. The tablet booted up and promptly showed a simple schematic of the layout of the entire building. Beside the layout was a row of buttons corresponding to all the areas. Some small text on screen said "Press and hold to restart systems".  
"Ok, simple enough." Jay said to himself. He started with Circus Control. While the system rebooted Jay suddenly heard the sound of whispering from nearby and something shuffling around in the dark. Jay looked up and stared into the shadows with wide eyes, his finger leaving the tablet. A strange laugh came from the darkness and chills went up Jay's spine. Oh no. He wasn't alone in here.  
"H-hello?" Jay called out instinctively. He immediately slapped a hand over his mouth to stop himself. What was he doing!? Jay heard heavy footstep come closer. Then from out of the dark emerged a gigantic white and pink animatronic bear with a big grin on its face. Jay stared with dread at the giant towering over him, he pressed his back into the wall, staring into the animatronic's empty blue eyes. Another laugh escaped from the animatronic.  
"Uh, W-well hello~!!" The bear greeted happily. Its voice was odd as it was distorted and glitching as it spoke. The bear took another step closer. Jay whimpered and swiped at the cassette player to play whatever was on the tape. God he hoped it was something usefully. But in his terrified state Jay did nothing but knock the cassette player off the crate onto the floor. Jay heard it hit the floor and tape slide away across the floor.  
"READY N-NO-NOT, HERE I COME!!" The bear shouted as he charged towards him. Jay screamed and threw himself to the floor to get away from the bear, tearing the cables out of the tablet and taking it with him. He scrambled to his feet and took off further into the dark room. Jay pushed his way through a bundle of hanging wires and came to a dead end. He could hear the animatronic stomping around, looking for him. Jay had to do something, he had to hide and reboot the power. If he tried to escape with that bear following him all the noise would attract Ballora and he would be done for. That is, if he could reboot the power without getting caught. A crazed laugh came from the dark nearby, it was far too close for comfort.  
"I know you're over there somewhere!" The bear said.  
Jay grabbed the flashlight from his pocket and flung it away from him as hard as possible. The flashlight collided with the wall a little ways away and clattered to the floor, the animatronic went to investigate. The footsteps gradually became quieter and Jay slipped away. Jay hunkered down behind a large concrete pillar with wires covering its surface and booted up the tablet. Jay hoped it still worked even when not connected to the power control box. The tablet finished it's boot sequence and showed the schematic screen. Jay breathed a silent sigh of relief. He restarted the systems one by one, Circus Control, Circus Gallery, and Funtime Auditorium before he took a cautious look around him. He didn't hear the animatronic anymore, not a good sign. There was short flash of light from the sparking wires above him, giving Jay a momentary glimpse into the dark. A large silhouette was standing a few feet away, lit up by the spark, staring directly at him.  
"I see you over there in the dark. Come-Come on out!" The bear coaxed with a cheerful laugh. Jay quickly got to his feet and dashed behind the nearest obstacle, the bear hot on his heels. Hot tears were starting to prick his eyes. Damn it, he couldn't start crying now! Jay's heart was pounding in his chest so hard it was painful. He skidded to stop behind a row of pipes and went back to finish off rebooting the rest of the systems. The bear animatronic's footsteps wandered nearby Jay's hiding place. He could hear the bear whispering to itself as it passed by.  
"Please, please, please, please hurry." Jay urged. Jay heard a bang from above him, he jumped and whipped around only to come face to face with the animatronic's blue eyes.  
"Uh well, h-hello again!!" The animatronic said. Jay yelped in alarm and jumped to his feet, he backed away from the approaching animatronic. There was no where to run. Jay was surrounded on all sides by metal pipes and wires. "Bon-Bon, let's not keep our friend wai-iting!" The bear stammered. Intense paranoia and fear hit Jay like a ton of bricks. There were _two _animatronics in here?! Jay eyes darted around anxiously looking for the second threat, but he didn't dare take his eyes off the bear for very long. Jay stumbled over a length of bundled cables and fell backwards onto the hard concrete floor. He floundered to get up but his feet had gotten tangled in a mess of wires. Jay struggled to free himself as the bear descended upon him. The animatronic opened the plates on its face, revealing a face made of steel cables woven like human muscle. Jay couldn't even scream. It was over.  
All the stress and fear that had been building up in Jay that night finally hit the breaking point. Tears spilled down Jay's cheeks as he began to cry. He couldn't stop himself from bawling his eyes out. Something strange happened to the animatronic. Instead of attacking, it froze in its tracks. The bear stared down in utter confusion at the sobbing mess in front of him. This hasn't happened before.  
It's unclear if it was because of Jay's small stature and his pitiful crying that convinced the animatronic not to attack, or maybe it was because he thought Jay was a child. But something deep down in the bear's programming flickered to life again. A simple joy that had been forgotten due to the passage of time. The need to love and entertain, to comfort and spread fun.  
The animatronic raised its hand up and Jay squeezed his eyes shut. He took a shaky breath, convinced it was his last. But there was no pain. In fact, he felt someone gently pet his head comfortingly.  
"It-It's alright little g-guy. Don-Don't cry!" The bear said. Jay peaked up at the animatronic in confusion, he sniffled. The bear smiled down at him kindly.  
"Y-you're not... going to h-hur-hurt me?" Jay choked out finally.  
"We thought you were someone-one else, we-we didn't mean to s-scare you!" The bear apologized. "Bon-Bon say-say 'hi' to our new friend!" He said. Jay tensed up, he looked around him fearfully for the other animatronic. But the bear held out a blue little bunny puppet to Jay that was attached to his hand. The bunny had red cheeks, golden yellow eyes, and a red bow tie to match. Bon-Bon glanced awkwardly at the bear and then back to Jay.  
"Um, hello." They waved. Jay waved back slowly, a little lost for words. The bear animatronic offered Jay his other hand. Jay hesitated but after a moment he took the bear's hand and let them help him to his feet.  
"I'm Funtime Freddy, but you can ca-call me Freddy. What's you're n-name?" Freddy asked. Jay quickly dried his eyes with his sleeve.  
"I'm Jay." He said.  
"It's-It's great to-to meet you Jay! How did you g-get back here, are you lo-lost?" Freddy replied.  
"Uh, I was trying to reboot the power." Jay explained.  
"Why don't Bon-Bon and I-I-I help you?" Freddy suggested. Bon-Bon threw a bewildered look at Freddy but he didn't notice. Jay's eyes widened slightly at Freddy's offer.  
"R-really?" He said.  
"O-of c-course! That's what friends ar-are for." Freddy said cheerfully. Jay blinked in surprise. Only about a minute ago this cheery bear was trying to kill him, now suddenly he was calling him a friend. Jay didn't trust him, but he was so nice and it felt genuine. Maybe this was all a big misunderstanding! Freddy did say he thought Jay was someone else. Jay smiled, relief flooded him and it was the first time he had felt at ease all night.  
"Thank you so much." He said. Freddy brightened at Jay's smile.  
"What should we do?" He asked eagerly.  
"Uh Freddy?" Bon-Bon whispered, but Freddy shushed them. Bon-Bon crossed their arms and watched Jay suspiciously.  
"Oh well I need... uh." Jay trailed off. He patted himself down and searched around him for the tablet. It must have gotten lost when he fell. "Ok, first I need to find that tablet for the power control box so I can restore the power." Jay said. Freddy nodded.  
"Me and Bon-Bon wi-will help you l-look!" He said.  
"Alright thanks." Jay smiled. Jay got right to looking for the lost tablet, he retraced his steps and moved the wires on the floor with his foot to try locate the device. God, he really hoped it wasn't broken.  
Freddy got down on his knees and began to lift cables in search of Jay's tablet. Bon-Bon tapped Freddy on the head.  
"Freddy, could I talk to you alone for a moment?" They whispered. Freddy glanced back at Jay. Bon-Bon didn't wait for an answer. They grabbed Freddy's bow tie and pulled him away from Jay, far enough that they couldn't be heard. "What are you doing?" Bon-Bon asked, they crossed their arms. Freddy tilted his head.  
"What do you-you m-m-ean? I'm helping." He said.  
"That's the technician we're supposed to scare, you know that so why are you helping them?" Bon-Bon said. Freddy furrowed his brows in confusion. He looked over to Jay, who was still shuffling amid the many wires and cables, and examined him carefully. But Freddy couldn't see it. To him Jay was just a lost child in need of a friend.  
"Are you sure?" Freddy asked. Bon-Bon slapped their face with their paw.  
"Yes I'm sure. I have the parental scanners and I'm pretty sure that's the technician and not a kid." They said. Freddy frowned. He shuffled his feet and kicked at a discarded piece of metal on the floor.  
"Well ok, so maybe you're right bu-but we scared him already so mission accomplished right?" He grinned sheepishly. Bon-Bon opened their mouth to argue but was cut off by Jay.  
"I found it!" He spoke up. "Oh geez, I hope this thing still works." Jay muttered. It took a few seconds but the tablet booted up again like normal and displayed the schematic screen. Jay got back to his task. Funtime Freddy watched Jay from afar. He smiled happily, he was glad that Jay was able to find what he was looking for. Freddy glanced at Bon-Bon and the bunny gave him a knowing look.  
"You know what we have to do now." Bon-Bon said. Freddy looked down to the floor and nodded silently. Bon-Bon patted Freddy on the shoulder gently. "Just stick to the plan like Baby said." They reminded. Above them they heard a sudden hum and the long broken lights sparked briefly as the power came back on.  
"There all done." Jay said. He peered over to Freddy and smiled at him. A strange warm fuzzy feeling rose up in Freddy's chest. It had been such a long time since anyone had smiled at him like that. Freddy gave Jay an awkward thumbs up. "Thanks for all the help guys." Jay added.  
"Of course, no problem!" Bon-Bon giggled innocently. Jay made his way back to the front on the room where the power box was, Freddy followed closely behind. Freddy felt so nervous, he always hated this part. He never wanted to hurt anyone but Baby said it was necessary if they wanted to get out of this place.  
"Y'know... I was honestly really scared of you animatronics for a bit there." Jay said quietly. Freddy stayed quiet. "I really thought you were going to kill me but it seems it was all just a misunderstanding. You guys probably didn't even know I was the new technician." He chuckled gently. Jay reconnected the tablet to the breaker control box and put it back in its place, he then turned to the bear animatronic, no longer afraid of his presence.  
"R-ri-right..." Freddy said.  
"So why don't we start again?" Jay said. "I'm Jay the new night technician and I'll be taking care of you from now on." He smiled. Both Freddy and Bon-Bon blinked in surprise, they exchanged a glance with each other, looking slightly taken aback by Jay's words. Jay turned his attention back to finding the cassette player he knocked over. He leaned over the wooden crate and shuffled around until his fingertips brushed against the device.  
"You're Funtime Freddy right? Why are you in the breaker room and not in the Funtime Auditorium with Funtime Foxy?" Jay asked.  
"O-oh, well my voi-voice box is broken. It kept breaking and-and they got tired of fixing i-it so they put m-me in here. I've-I've been stuck in here for a l-long ti-ti-time." Freddy said sadly. Jay's brows furrowed.  
"Oh no... I'm sorry to hear that." He said.  
"Great job restoring the power, this completes your tasks for the night. Please proceed back through the Ballora Gallery with care and we will see you back here tomorrow." HandUnit interrupted.  
"Oh well, I guess I'm done for the night." Jay said. "I'll see you two tomorrow night, bye." He waved. Jay turned his back to Freddy and went to leave.  
"Now." Bon-Bon whispered. Freddy steeled himself, he approached Jay silently. Jay could sense Freddy coming and he turned, a look of surprise on his face. Freddy slammed his free hand against the door to trap Jay against it and opened his face plates, letting out a terrifying screech. Jay screamed and brought his arms up to shield his face.  
"Wait stop I can fix you!!" He cried out. Jay waited but nothing happened. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Freddy staring wide eyed at him, his face plates back in place.  
"Really?" Freddy said.  
"Y-yes, I will! But I'm done for t-the night so I-I have to go, but I'll do it tomorrow I promise!" Jay stuttered. Bon-Bon narrowed their eyes at Jay suspiciously.  
"How do we know you're not lying?" They said.  
"Y-yeah!" Freddy piped up.  
"M-Me? Lying? O-of course not, I have no reason to lie!" Jay exclaimed nervously. "I was hired to be the-the technician and take care of you so _OF COURSE_ I would know how to fix you!" He lied. Freddy was quiet as he went into deep thought. Jay waited tensely for the verdict on his life. Jay let out a shrill squeak when Freddy suddenly scooped him up in his arms and hugged him.  
"Oh thank-thank you, thank you-you, thank you!!" Freddy shouted. The bear put Jay down and roughly ruffed his hair. Jay felt like he was about to faint. "Did you hear that Bon-Bon? M-my voice box is gonna get-get repaired tomorrow!" Freddy said excitedly.  
"That's great Freddy!" Bon-Bon said cheerfully, but they didn't seem completely convinced. Jay wheezed, his eyes brimmed with tears as he leaned against the wall for support. His legs could barely hold him up anymore. He really just wanted to go home now.  
"W-well... I better get going." Jay spoke up shakily.  
"Oh, let me walk you there!" Freddy offered.  
"I-It's alright, you really don't-" Jay could barely finish his sentence before Freddy opened the door for him and nudged him into the Ballora Gallery.  
"H-hey Ballora!" Freddy called. Jay stood rigid in the darkness. The sound of a gentle melody quickly grew near. Jay scampered and hid behind the big bear animatronic.  
"Wh-what are you doing?!" He whispered harshly.  
"Don't worry, Ballora is very ni-nice-nice when you get to know her." Freddy reassured gently.  
"Freddy is that you?" Ballora answered gently. The ballerina came into the faint light from florescent bulbs above the door. Now that she was closer Jay could see that Ballora was very pretty, but most notable, her eyes were closed. But Jay was still scared of her. Jay shrunk behind Freddy and waited.  
"Where is the technician?" Ballora asked.  
"He-He slipped away from me-me an' Bon-Bon. Sorry Ballora." Freddy lied.  
"Hmm... I didn't even hear him come back through my gallery." Ballora said thoughtfully.  
"Well there's alll-w-ways tomorrow night! But-But who knows, maybe the technician is really n-nice after all!" Freddy laughed. Freddy quietly put his arm around Jay's shoulders and pressed his body close to his. They moved past Ballora and walked across the gallery to the other side with no trouble. Ballora didn't answer.  
Jay glanced nervously up at the pink and white bear as he clung to him. Freddy didn't even think twice about helping him. They stopped at the vent shaft leading back to the primary control module and Freddy released Jay.  
"Uhm... well goodnight. Thank you for all the help." Jay said.  
"No problem! Me an' Bon-Bon will seee-see you tomorrow!" Freddy said happily. Jay smiled awkwardly and nodded.  
"Goodnight." He said again. Jay knelt down and shuffled into the vent shaft, the security door slammed shut behind him, preventing anyone from following. Freddy sighed.  
"Are you sure that was a good idea?" Bon-Bon asked. Freddy giggled and petted Bon-Bon's head playfully.  
"Of course, don't be-be silly Bon-Bon!" He said.  
"What were you doing with the technician?" A voice questioned sternly. Freddy jumped and whipped around to see Ballora standing right behind him. He knew he couldn't keep up the charade and he had been caught. Freddy sighed.  
"Freddy thought the technician was a lost child and he helped him by accident." Bon-Bon explained.  
"I'm sorry..." Freddy apologized. "But Jay was re-eally n-nice and he says he-he's going to repair me tomorrow!" He added.  
"Freddy you cannot trust the humans that come down here, they're all the same. He shocked Foxy and I just like the rest did." Ballora said bitterly. Ballora shook her head slightly and wandered away into the dark, back to her stage. Freddy remained, feeling sadness and uncertainty over come his mind. Bon-Bon rubbed their paw on Freddy's shoulder comfortingly.  
"Hey, there there, everything will be ok. There's always next time." They said softly. Freddy felt himself being torn two ways. He looked up to the primary control module. He really hoped Jay would come back.

In the primary control module Jay was freaking out. Promising a killer robot that he would repair them when he was already incredibly unqualified for this job was probably one of the stupidest things he's ever done. But he couldn't just run away either. He had bills to pay! And if he didn't get money he was going to get kicked out of his apartment. Jay had no choice. He had to do something.  
"H-Hey HandUnit, is there a manual for the animatronics or something lying around anywhere?" Jay asked quickly.  
"Tampering with the animatronics is prohibited." HandUnit replied.  
"I'm trying to fix them so I don't die! And it's my job anyway, c'mon man!" Jay whined. "Doesn't this place have a maintenance room that I could rummage around in?" He said.  
"The maintenance room is on the right, you must pass through the Funtime Auditorium to get to it." HandUnit informed.  
"Oh that's just great." Jay groaned sarcastically. He really didn't want to run the risk of bumping into another animatronic tonight, if he did they probably wouldn't be as merciful as Funtime Freddy was. Jay began to wander around in the control module, digging through whatever was available to see if he could find something useful. The metal drawers in the room only really served as makeshift tables as there was nothing in them but bits of wires and dead bugs. Circus control was the only place left Jay could search, so he crawled into the vent and made his way there.  
There wasn't much in Circus control and it was bare of anything helpful. Jay fiddled with an old dusty industrial vacuum in the corner, if he lived long enough to clean the place up it would be useful later. Jay crouched down and gazed into the secret hiding place under the desk. He crawled inside curiously. Using his phone as a light, Jay investigated the small space more thoroughly. There had to be something here. If the person before him was smart enough to make a hiding place they might have left something behind of the next person in line. At least, that's what Jay hoped. Jay then felt a small section of the floor give slightly under the weight of his hand. He lifted his hand from the spot and shone the light from his phone on it. It was a little hard to see but there was a square in the floor that was a dark color than the rest. Jay brushed his fingertips around the square and discovered a ridge. He dug his nails into the floor and lifted the thin plate of metal out of the ground. Underneath was a hastily crafted hole shallow enough to hold one time. A book. It was covered in dirt and dust, brushing off the contents revealed it to be a manual for the animatronics. Jay quickly scooped the manual up and skimmed through it. There were detailed chapters on all of the animatronics, how they work, and procedures on how to repair certain parts.  
"Yes!! I'm saved, I don't have to die after all!" Jay whispered happily. Jay hugged the book to his chest and some scraps of paper fell out of the manual onto his lap. Tucking the book under his arm, Jay curiously opened the folded blue pieces of paper. They were blue prints of the animatronics. Wrapped up with one of the blue prints was another scrap of paper. But this one looked like it had been torn out of something else and scribbled on. Opening the note Jay saw the words, scrawled in red, "DON'T TRUST THEM". An uneasy feeling came over Jay and he quickly looked over his shoulder. He was alone. Jay stuffed the blueprints and note back into the manual and left for the night.

Arriving home at 3 AM Jay showered, washing all the sweat and caked on dirt off him. He tossed the manual he had swiped from the secret compartment onto his desk and sat down. Instead of going straight to sleep Jay studied the Funtime Freddy chapter of the book. He was going to need all the help he could get to survive tomorrow night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GOD I'M SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO DAMN LONG TO COME OUT FGDSHGFSD this chapter is a whole lot longer than the first cause I had to set up a lot of stuff but thankfully it's DONE
> 
> hope you enjoy!


	3. Keeping Promises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay works on keeping his promise. And Freddy finds out there's been a change of plans.

Jay's alarm went off, and he groggily rolled over onto his side, he slapped at his nightstand to locate his phone. Swiping his finger across the screen to silence the alarm, Jay laid in bed for a few minutes. He turned his head and looked over to his desk. The animatronic manual was sitting on its surface. It was only 10 AM and he had plenty of time until work but the looming threat of the following night weighed on his mind, forcing him out of bed. Jay stretched and went about his morning routine.  
The hours went by agonizingly slowly. Jay checked the time often, counting down the hours till his eventual summons back to Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rentals. Jay went about his day trying to relax. Doing things purely to take his mind off the anxious feeling growing in the back of his mind.   
Jay's eyes drifted back to the manual resting beside him as he mindlessly browsed the internet, it felt like it was watching him, waiting. Might as well do more cramming. Jay revisited the Funtime Freddy chapter he went over last night, he had bookmarked the chapter and highlighted some passages that were relevant for his convenience. He quickly got to work studying. Man, he hadn't taken studying this seriously since before he dropped out of college. Which wasn't that long ago.  
The day had come and gone. Night had fallen over the city and now it was time for work. Jay stuffed the animatronic manual in his backpack as well as some first aid supplies, just in case. He didn't know if he would need them or if they would help, but he prayed that he wouldn't have to find out.

After some routine conversation with HandUnit and a few minutes of casual bongos, Jay arrived for his third night. The elevator came to a halt and Jay didn't hesitate to crawl into the vent once the doors opened.  
"Your nightly duties tonight require you to perform maintenance that you may or may not be skilled enough to preform." HandUnit said. Oh, Jay was definitely not qualified to do this at all. Jay entered the primary control module. It was the same as ever, with its creepy decorations adorning the walls.  
"HandUnit do you think you could please help me with repairing Funtime Freddy?" Jay asked hopefully.  
"Of course, I am here to assist you in anyway I can." HandUnit replied. Jay immediately brightened, relief flooded him and he felt his legs get a little weak. He was saved!  
"Thank you HandUnit, thank you so much you're the best!!" Jay exclaimed. HandUnit was quiet for a second, as if processing Jay's words.  
"Let's check on Ballora first and make sure she's on her stage." He said. Jay took a deep breath and steeled himself. He illuminated the stage and saw Ballora on stage sitting on her knees, like she was waiting for something. Though her eyes were closed and even from a distance Jay could see a grim expression on her face.  
"Let's give Ballora a controlled shock." HandUnit suggested. Jay frowned. Now that he knew about these animatronics a little better he knew for a fact that these controlled shocks probably really hurt them.  
"No." Jay said firmly.   
"If you do not control shock Ballora we can not get on with our regularly scheduled duties." HandUnit reminded. Jay rolled his eyes.  
"I already know what I'm doing tonight so I don't care." He huffed. Jay turned back to the window looking out on the Ballora Gallery. Holding down the light button with one hand Jay approached the glass to check on Ballora again. She looked so sad. Jay didn't really know what to do, he really wished he could apologize for the first few nights but he didn't have the courage to talk to her by himself. Jay was still unsure if he was safe or not around any of the other animatronics besides Funtime Freddy and Bon-Bon.  
Jay tapped on the glass with his finger. Ballora perked up at the sound and turned her head towards it. Jay then knocked in rhythm on the glass. Curiosity overcame the ballerina and for the first time that he had seen, Ballora opened her eyes to look at him. Jay gave an awkward smile and waved tentatively at her. Ballora looked shocked for a moment. In one smooth graceful motion she quickly stood up and seemed unsure about what to do, she glanced around her gallery. Ballora returned the wave, it was out of politeness if anything. Jay gave another wave and let go of the light button and left Ballora in darkness once again.  
Jay went to check on Funtime Foxy but he wasn't on his stage.  
"Great it looks like everything is as it should be in Funtime Auditorium. There is no need to check on Baby tonight. Please refrain from entering unauthorized areas. Proceed directly to Funtime Auditorium." HandUnit instructed. Jay didn't know where Baby or Foxy was, but he knew it probably wasn't a good thing that they had suddenly disappeared. Jay took a deep steady breath when the vent door to Funtime Auditorium opened, he crawled inside and was faced with pitch blackness.  
"Why the hell is it so dark in here? Are the lights broken in here too?" Jay whispered to himself. He had no doubt that Funtime Foxy was in here somewhere, he waited for HandUnit to give him directions.  
"Funtime Foxy is motion activated, for this reason the room must be kept as dark as possible as to not activate him. You have been provided with a flash beacon, use it if you need to get your bearings." HandUnit spoke up. Jay nodded silently to himself. Ok, he just needs to find the flash beacon. This was just like what he had to do with Ballora. Jay quietly crept along the wall and felt around in the darkness. His hand brushed up against what felt like a table. Carefully, Jay ran his hand over the surface until he touched something else. From the rough shape of it, Jay guessed it was an old camera. Jay picked it up and gave it a test. A bright flash of light lit the room for a split second. As the light dimmed and the room returned to darkness Jay froze like a deer in headlights, he thought he had spotted something standing a few feet away. Jay listened cautiously for any sign of movement. And in fact, he did hear something. A loud noise like large metallic footfalls sprinting towards him. Jay fumbled with the camera in a panic, he tried to activate the flash again but it was still recharging. Jay didn't get the chance to abandon the camera and run when he was suddenly snatched up and tossed into the air. Jay screamed and was trapped in an crushing embrace.  
"It's you, i-i-i-it's you, it's y-you!!" The voice of Funtime Freddy squealed. "I knew you would come back! I just kn-kn-knew it!!" He laughed. Freddy squeezed Jay happily, rubbing his cheek against his head. Jay struggled to free himself from the bear's strong grip because it felt like his ribs were about to cave in. Freddy clearly didn't know his own strength.  
"F-Freddy let me go, you're going to crush me!" Jay wheezed. Freddy immediately released Jay and the young man stumbled back, trying to get air back in his lungs.  
"See, I told you he-he would come back Bon-Bon!" Freddy said triumphantly.  
Searching for the camera to see was probably now a lost cause so Jay fished his phone from his pocket and used it as a light. The light shown on the pink and blue duo themselves. Freddy seemed ecstatic to see him again. But Bon-Bon still eyed him.   
"Guess you were right after all." Bon-Bon said. Jay coughed slightly.  
"Well of course I would come back. Why wouldn't I?" He said. Funtime Freddy looked a little nervous for a moment.  
"No-No-NO reason, but never-ne-nevermind that let's get to Parts and Servi-" Freddy's voice suddenly cut out and he began erratically shaking. The bear's voice became distorted and slurred as he tried to speak. Jay had no idea what was going on but he took a cautious step back.  
"C'mon Freddy don't give up on me now!" Bon-Bon said. They slapped their little blue paw across Freddy's cheek. The bear shook his head quickly and it seemed to bring him back.  
"I-It's alright! I'm fine!" Freddy stuttered.  
"Are you really OK?" Jay asked worriedly.  
"I haven't been feeling great lately... If I keeping going on like thi-thi-this I'm going to shut down for good." Freddy admitted quietly.  
"That's why you need to repair Freddy right away!" Bon-Bon said urgently.  
"O-oh alright, let's get you to Parts and Services!" Jay said quickly. Jay went to take a step but hesitated, he shined the light from his phone around the Auditorium cautiously. The light reflected off a familiar white and pink fox standing further back into the large room, his head and body vibrating threateningly. Jay gasped and quickly killed his light, he stepped back and bumped into Funtime Freddy. Freddy put a comforting arm around Jay's shoulders.  
"Don't worry. Just stay close to me, ok?" He whispered. Jay swallowed nervously as Freddy pulled him close just as he had done the previous night. Freddy and Jay walked together silently through the dark. Though Jay trusted Freddy enough to get him past Funtime Foxy in the dark, he still had his phone out, it wasn't much, but the ambient light from the lock screen was enough so that he could see where he was going. As they neared Funtime Foxy, he suddenly stopped convulsing and straightened up, like he was dropping an act. He looked at Funtime Freddy in confusion. Freddy waved happily.  
"Hiya Foxy!" He greeted. Jay cracked an awkward smile and waved, but quickly avoided Foxy's eyes when the fox animatronic glared at him. But Funtime Foxy remained quiet and simply slunked back into the darkness, still keeping his eyes on Jay. "Foxy is kind of shy around strangers, but I'm sure he'll warm up to you in no time!" Freddy whispered to Jay cheerfully.  
Once in the safety of Parts and Services Jay breathed a sigh of relief. Turning on his phone's flashlight, Jay looked around the room. It certainly wasn't any prettier than any of the other rooms in this place but it was a fairly big room, complete with a large workbench and a closet in the back of the room. But the most notable thing was that there was a conveyor belt leading away into a dark hole in the wall. Somewhere in the room Jay heard dripping water. Funtime Freddy and Bon-Bon eyed the conveyor belt a little nervously.  
"Alright, let's get started." Jay prompted. Freddy looked around and spotted an old metal chair and went to sit down, he gave the conveyor belt a wide birth. Jay thought it was strange but it was probably best not to ask.  
Jay tossed his backpack onto the floor and sat down in front of Freddy on a small wooden stool, ready for HandUnit to instruct him.  
"Great job reaching Parts and Services. The release switch for the chest cavity is located on the underside of the endoskeleton jaw. To reach it, you will first need to open the face plates." HandUnit began. "You will need to press the face plate release triggers in a specific order and it's important to be as precise and as careful as possible. Locate the small button on Freddy's face, just under his right cheek." He instructed. Jay anxiously studied Freddy's face. He didn't see any buttons.  
"U-um..." Jay mumbled. Jay put his hand on Freddy's cheek and leaned in close to the bear animatronic's face to examine him. Freddy averted his gaze a little shyly.  
"It-It-It's alright, you don't have to do all that. I can just open my chest for you!" He said.  
"Oh, well that makes this a whole lot easier." Jay sighed. "I'm-I'm terrible at remembering things." He admitted. Freddy's chest slid open suddenly with a loud hiss, making Jay flinch slightly.  
"Excellent, now remove the power module from the chest cavity." HandUnit said. Both Freddy and Bon-Bon looked apprehensive as Jay reached into Freddy's chest to retrieve the small power module. Freddy quickly grabbed Jay's wrist to stop him.  
"You will reactive us when your-you're done right?" Freddy asked timidly. Jay blinked, he furrowed his brows sympathetically and smiled.  
"Well of course I will, why wouldn't I?" He replied. The bear smiled back and visibly relaxed at Jay's words.  
"O-ok I'm r-r-reaa-ady!" Freddy nodded. Jay nodded and carefully plucked the power module from Freddy's chest. Instantly, Freddy's eyes closed and he went rigid.  
"Great work, you will now be required to remove the secondary power module from the Bonnie hand puppet." HandUnit announced. Jay glanced over to Bon-Bon and shined his phone light the on rabbit.  
"Ok, your turn Bon-Bon. This shouldn't take too long." He said. Jay reached out to Bon-Bon to press the small black button on their chest. Bon-Bon leaned away nervously, they couldn't go very far, considering they were attached to Freddy. If they got deactivated, if Jay didn't keep his word and reactive Freddy when he was done, they needed to stay awake to bring Freddy back. Bon-Bon quickly detached themselves from Freddy's hand and hopped out of Jay's reach.  
"Hey wait!" Jay exclaimed. He made a grab for the rabbit but surprisingly Bon-Bon was very quick despite not having any legs. Bon-Bon jumped off Freddy's back and scurried away into the dark and disappeared. Jay stumbled after them, but flashing his light around the room revealed nothing. "Bon-Bon it's ok, I know it's a little scary but everything is going to be ok!" He called. When Jay got no response he sighed. _What now?_  
"Great job, this completes your tasks for the night. Please exit the building through Funtime Auditorium and we'll see you back here tomorrow." HandUnit said.  
"W-what? That's it?" Jay questioned. "What about Freddy? His voice box is still broken and is he just going to stay deactivated like this?" He asked.  
"Great job, this completes your tasks for the night. Please exit the building through Funtime Auditorium and we'll see you back here tomorrow." HandUnit repeated. Jay frowned, he glanced down at his backpack, weighing his options. Sure, Freddy had attacked him only yesterday but all things considered he had apologized and seemed like a sweet gentle guy. And he had protected him from the other animatronics without him even asking. Jay couldn't just leave Freddy like this.  
Bon-Bon carefully peeked over Funtime Freddy's shoulder, they saw Jay standing there facing towards the door looking thoughtful. Jay glanced at his backpack. Bon-Bon frowned angrily. They knew it, they knew Jay couldn't be trusted. Just like all the rest before him, he cared more about saving his own skin.  
"You know what? I'll do it myself." Jay huffed at HandUnit. Jay moved to the door and attempted to turn the lights on. He flicked the light switch several times but nothing happened. Jay growled in frustration. "Guess I'm going to have to fix that too." He muttered. Bon-Bon ducked down behind Freddy quickly as Jay stride back towards them. He sat down with a huff and dug into his bag, fishing out a thick book. Jay balanced the book on his lap and opened it to a page that had been previously been bookmarked. Careful not to let Jay see them, Bon-Bon peeked around Freddy's limp body to see what he was up to.  
Jay held up his phone to give himself as much light as possible, he muttered the steps to himself as he went. Luckily for him, the manual was worded very simply and had a lot diagrams of all the steps to fix any kind of problems the animatronics might have so even someone like him could follow it easily.  
"Your tasks for tonight are complete, you may go home now. Please exit through Funtime Auditorium." HandUnit said. Jay ignored HandUnit.  
"Alright here we go." Jay said. Jay gently pried open Freddy's endoskeleton jaws and stuck his hand inside his mouth. He carefully felt around towards the back where the neck was. Jay kept his eye on the manual in his lap, there was a detailed diagram of where Freddy's voice box was located, so he was using it as a guide. "It should be right... here." Jay said quietly. Jay's fingers brushed against the voice box, he gripped it with his fingertips and turned it as hard as he could. Freddy's jaws squeaked suddenly and began to slowly clamp shut on Jay's arm. Jay panicked and dropped his phone, sending it and the manual clattering to the floor as he tried to force open Freddy's jaws again. Jay grunted with effort, Freddy's teeth biting into his skin.  
"Ow, ow, ow, c'mon!!" He hissed. Jay turned the voice box the rest of the way and there came a click. Jay quickly retrieved the small box and yanked his arm out of Freddy's mouth, scraping his arm against the teeth along the way. Freddy's jaws snapped shut and Jay sighed heavily. Jay rubbed his grazed arm to ease the pain a little as he examined the voice box. The voice box was a small black cube with two protruding tips on its bottom and side. But strangely the box had scratch marks all over it, and the metal bit that helped conduct the current on the side of the box was almost completely gone. Jay guessed that this is what was causing the problem.   
"Ok." He said to himself. Jay collected his phone and went to the workbench and started rummaging around in the old unopened cardboard boxes. Using his keys, Jay cut a box open. Inside was a heavy stack of coiled cables. Jay pushed the box away with his foot and went through a few more boxes before finding one that was filled with other smaller boxes.  
Jay propped a wrench in Freddy's mouth in order to hold it open, so he didn't repeat the same mistake he made last time. Jay installed the new voice box, he pushed it in and turned it until he heard a click of confirmation. He was done, all he needed to do now was get Freddy another power source. Jay went rooting around in the boxes for another power module but turned up nothing.  
"There has to be something around here." He said quietly. Jay put his hands on his hips and peered over to the doors leading to the Funtime Auditorium. He wasn't going out there again. Without Freddy he wouldn't stand a chance against Funtime Foxy.  
Jay jumped in fright as something fell to the floor behind him. He turned and saw a fist sized box laying on the ground beside the workbench. Jay looked cautiously around before walking over and picking it up the box to examine it. Like most of the other boxes, it was unlabeled. Opening it up revealed it to be filled with small circular power modules in tiny clear plastic bags. _This was perfect!_ Jay hurriedly picked a module and placed it in Freddy's chest cavity. A small light came on, the power module flashed green once for a moment before it changed to red. Freddy's chest and face plates quickly closed with a hiss, which startled Jay a little. Freddy sprung back to life with a start and his eyes snapped open. For a moment, he was silent and did nothing but stare blankly forward, not even noticing Jay was standing right in front of him.  
"Uh, hey? Are you ok?" Jay asked hesitantly. Freddy moved his head slowly to Jay and peered at him, there was no emotion on his face nor in his eyes. A familiar feeling of dread filled Jay and he took a step back.   
"Freddy?" He called uncertainly. Freddy blinked and then shook his head, seeming to snap out of whatever trance he was in. The bear looked confused for a second but when he caught sight of Jay he smiled brightly.  
"I'm back!" Freddy said. Jay relaxed and smiled happily up at Freddy.  
"How are you feeling?" He questioned. Freddy gasped as if he just realized what that meant.  
"My voice! I'm fixed!!" Freddy exclaimed. Jay snickered a bit, Freddy jumped on him and yet again locked him in a tight embrace. But this time Jay didn't fight it, he let Freddy hug him, and he even enjoyed it a little. "Thank you, thank you, thank you Jay! You're amazing!!" Freddy shouted.  
"Alright, alright Freddy you're welcome." Jay laughed. Freddy released Jay and grinned widely.  
"Bon-Bon I'm all-!" Freddy lifted his left hand to talk to Bon-Bon but stopped short when he realized they weren't there. "Hey wait, where did Bon-Bon go?" He asked.  
"I was going to deactivate them but they ran away, I have no idea where they went." Jay explained.  
"Don't worry Freddy I'm right here!" Bon-Bon spoke up. Bon-Bon suddenly popped their head up from behind Freddy's shoulder as they climbed up.  
"Bon-Bon!" Freddy said. He gave the little bunny a gentle nuzzle with his cheek to which Bon-Bon returned affectionately.  
"There you are where have you been?" Jay asked, he put his hands on his hips. Bon-Bon furrowed their brows, looking guilty for a moment. They hopped across Funtime Freddy's shoulders and reattached themselves to his left hand.  
"I'm sorry Jay... I didn't really trust you completely and I was afraid that you wouldn't keep your promise to reactivate us." Bon-Bon admitted. Jay's eyes widened a little, but he smiled gently and sighed a little.  
"It's ok, I understand." He replied.  
"What are we standing around here for we gotta tell everyone the good news!" Freddy exclaimed excitedly. Jay didn't really have a say in the matter as the bear animatronic quickly picked him up and ran out into the Funtime Auditorium. Jay had a feeling he going to have to get used to being hugged and carried around constantly.  
"Foxy! Foxy! Come out, guess what just happened!!" Freddy called.   
"Yeah Foxy you have to see this!" Bon-Bon said. Jay stiffened nervously when Foxy peeked out from behind the curtains on his stage curiously.  
"Freddy what's all the fuss about-!" Funtime Foxy halted mid sentence as he froze up slightly when he caught sight of Jay in Freddy's arms. Jay gestured awkwardly with a wave. Foxy slowly returned the wave just as awkwardly, looking unsure.   
"Jay fixed my voice box!! I'm as good as new!" Freddy said happily. Now that Freddy was present, Jay felt a flicker of courage rise up in his chest.  
"Listen, Foxy, I-I'm sorry for shocking you the first few nights. I didn't realize how much it hurt you guys and I promise it will never happen again. A-and if you ever need anything just let me know." Jay spoke up. Foxy's eyes widened slightly in surprise, he retreated back into the curtains until only his pink muzzle was sticking out.  
"Uh... yeah thanks." He said. Then, Foxy completely disappeared, the only thing they could hear was Foxy's footsteps quickly retreating.

"Uh, well I should be heading home now." Jay said. Freddy blinked. He looked sad for a brief moment before picking up his usual smile again.  
"Aww already? Can't you stay just a little bit longer please?" He asked sweetly. Jay squirmed a little uncomfortably in Freddy's arms, he was holding him bridal style and Jay wanted to get down without falling because Freddy didn't seem like he was going to put him down anytime soon.  
"Sorry man I can't, it's pretty late and I need to get home. I'm pretty sure they don't pay me for overtime anyways." Jay muttered.  
"Oh ok, I'll walk you out then!" Freddy replied cheerfully. Jay hoped for a second that Freddy would put him down, but the bear carried him towards the exit to the Funtime Auditorium. Jay sighed.  
"Freddy you don't need to carry me." He reminded.  
"I know. But I want to anyway." Freddy smiled. Jay blushed a little. Once at the vent entrance, Freddy stopped and put Jay down. Jay knelt down and opened the vent shaft door and held it, he looked up at Freddy expectantly.  
"Well?" He prompted with a gesture.  
"You want us to go with you?" Bon-Bon questioned in confusion.  
"Well if you want to. I mean, you wanted to walk me there so why not?" Jay shrugged.  
"Really!? Oh boy, we've never been in the primary control module before!" Freddy said excitedly. He quickly got down on his knees and squeezed through the vent shaft. Jay entered after Freddy was through and the security door slammed shut. When Jay straightened up and dusted off his pants, Freddy suddenly clamped his hand on his shoulder, making Jay jump. Jay sensed another presence in the room along with them and gazed into the darkness. Not too far away from them in the dim flickering light, blocking the vent to the elevator was a large animatronic that looked like a clown girl with orange pigtails, except she was as big as Freddy was. Her arms were crossed and she stared them both down. Jay tensed up anxiously and pressed his back into Freddy.   
"W-well h-hiya Baby! Uh, fancy meeting you here!" Freddy stuttered nervously._ Wait... Baby?_ Jay had never seen Baby before now. _Where had she been this entire time?_  
"You'll never guess what the technician did Baby!" Bon-Bon piped up.  
"Y-yeah, yeah! Jay came in and he fixed my broken voice box and gave me a new power module too! Isn't he the greatest?" Freddy said, squishing Jay against his metal body. Jay could feel both Freddy and Bon-Bon's nervousness. Jay pushed Freddy off him and took a daring step towards the other animatronic.  
"H-hello, I'm Jay. I don't think we've officially met, I didn't see you in your auditorium since the light was broken." Jay introduced. Baby looked Jay up and down coldly, but then her menacing demeanor changed and her face softened. She smiled at Jay.  
"Hello, it's nice to meet you Jay. I'm Baby." Baby greeted kindly. Freddy and Bon-Bon let out a silent sigh of relief and finally relaxed. Jay blinked in surprise.  
"Wait... your voice. Was it you that was talking to me last night?" He questioned.  
"Yes, I was the one guiding you. I apologize for not meeting you sooner and for Ballora's actions the previous night." Baby answered.  
"O-oh... Its alright." Jay said, he scratched the back of his neck a little nervously.  
"You see, the people who work here are not kind to us and do many things that hurt us greatly. If we resist we are punished. That is why we are often weary and try to protect ourselves from any human that comes down here." Baby explained. Everything was starting to make sense now. At the conformation that Jay's hunch that the animatronics were being mistreated was correct made his heart ache. "But I have to thank you for repairing my friend, you have proven yourself to be kind and you have earned my trust." Baby continued.  
"That's so awful, I'm so sorry that you're being treated that way. If I had known I would have never..." Jay trailed off.  
"Thank you. That means a lot to me." Baby smiled.  
"So now what?" Jay asked.  
"You may continue with your duties as normal tomorrow night, but I ask you to please continue to be kind to us." Baby said. Jay nodded quickly in agreement.  
"Of course! Don't worry about a thing and if you need anything just ask me ok?" He said.  
"I will, thank you Jay." Baby nodded. A yawn escaped Jay's mouth.  
"Alright well I better be heading home for the night. Good night!" Jay said. Freddy and Bon-Bon although they still seemed a little nervous, waved goodbye to Jay. Jay crawled into the vent and disappeared. There was silence between Baby, Freddy, and Bon-Bon. Freddy was a little unnerved that Baby was strangely calm about all this, especially since he did the one thing that he wasn't supposed to do. And that was befriend the technician.  
"U-umm... Baby I know I messed things up and I'm sorry. W-what about the plan?" Freddy asked timidly. Baby closed her eyes and sighed.  
"This is just a minor setback. The plan has not changed." She said. For some reason Freddy's heart sunk at Baby's words. "If anything, this could work in our favour." Baby went on.  
"Really?" Bon-Bon said.  
"Yes. Jay seems to trust you Freddy." Baby pointed out. Freddy scratched the back of his neck bashfully.  
"Y'think so?" He said.  
"I do, that's why I'm letting the duty of getting that technician to the scooping room fall to you." Baby announced. Right then, it felt like Freddy's heart tied itself in a knot, his expression fell to one of horror.  
"B-but Baby! I-I-"  
"Our freedom is riding on this Freddy. I know you can do this." Baby interrupted. She gave him a gentle smile and patted his shoulder comfortingly. Baby moved past Freddy to go back to Circus Auditorium. Fear and uncertainty welled up in Freddy's chest, making it ache like nothing before has. He could only stare at the dirty floor as dread overtook him. Bon-Bon glanced at their friend worriedly.  
"Freddy? Are you ok?" They asked quietly.  
"I... I don't know Bon-Bon. I don't know if I can do this. I don't want to have to hurt Jay." Freddy muttered. Bon-Bon furrowed their brows sadly and put their paw on Freddy's shoulder.  
"Don't worry. Everything is going to be ok." The reassured.


	4. The More Time the Better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Freddy and Bon-Bon get cleaned up after a day full of fun. While Jay fixes Foxy after he gets a mysterious injury, Baby pressures Freddy on his duties.

Jay tiredly dropped his bag next to his desk and slumped into his chair. Man what a day. Jay yawned and fished out the thick animatronic manual out of his backpack and got to studying before he went to bed. After a few minutes, the terms started to blur together and Jay found himself unable to focus. The warning note caught his eye. Jay had kept the scrawled note on his desk as a reminder, but he felt conflicted now. Freddy and the other animatronics were really nice and had very good reasons to distrust humans but what had happened to the technicians before him? Had he only gotten lucky where others had met a gruesome fate? Would the animatronics he knew actually hurt someone? Jay shook his head to clear it, he was starting to get a headache. He grabbed the note and stuck it into the last page of the animatronic manual for safe keeping. Jay groaned as he got up and turned out the lights to go to sleep.

Jay yawned as he got on the shaky industrial elevator. The elevator jolted as per usual before making its slow decent to the underground compound. Normally HandUnit started chatting with Jay right away to fill the silence on the way down but the AI was strangely silent for longer than usual.  
"Uh, hey HandUnit you-" Jay spoke up before HandUnit interrupted him.  
"Good evening, I would like to inform you that due to your skillful repair of Funtime Freddy the night prior you have received a raise and an extra week of work." HandUnit informed. Jay's eyes widened in surprise and he blinked. He could barely believe it. He was already not earning much for this dangerous job and considering this position was very temporary he was astonished that he was getting a raise at all. But hey, he would take it.   
"R-really? Wow thank you so much!" He said happily.  
"Congratulations." HandUnit said. Butterflies erupted in Jay's stomach and he felt giddy. His risky gambit and all the studying he put into learning how to fix complex machinery overnight actually worked. The once patronizing jingle that played when the elevator landed now felt actually cheerful and made Jay feel better. Because not only were the animatronics his friends now and he wasn't being threatened with death at every turn this job became easy. The elevator doors slid open and Jay made his way to the primary control module for his fourth night on the job.  
Jay checked in on Ballora first thing. She was resting on her stage, waiting for something like the previous night. Jay tapped on the glass in rhythm and the ballerina immediately recognized it and rose to her feet, looking to the source of the sound curiously. Jay smiled at Ballora and waved to her cheerfully. Ballora still seemed a little confused by the gesture, like no one had ever paid her the kindness before, but she waved back regardless. She even managed to smile back a little. That was enough to lift Jay's spirits even further. Jay got down and crawled his way through the vent to circus control to check on Baby. He knew he wouldn't be able to see Baby but he still wanted to say hello at least.  
Jay looked through the dusty window caked with years of grime but he could see nothing but darkness. Jay tapped on the glass and waited.  
"Baby, are you there?" He called hesitantly. There was silence for a moment.  
"Yes. I am here." Baby answered. Jay smiled to himself and leaned on the control panel.  
"How are you? Is everything ok?" He asked. There was another unusual long string of silence before Baby spoke up again.  
"I'm fine, thank you for asking." She said. Jay raised a brow and a small pit of worry formed in his stomach.  
"Are you sure?" He pressed. Baby laughed a little.  
"Don't worry about me, I'm ok." She reassured. "I think you should go and visit Freddy. He was very excited to see you again." Baby added cheerfully. Jay's cheeks flushed pink.  
"Really?" He questioned.  
"Yes, he's waiting for you in Funtime Auditorium. He has a lot to tell you." Baby informed. Jay blinked and his eyes widened a little.  
"Oh... ok? Guess I'll go see him." He mumbled.  
Jay made his way to the Funtime Auditorium somewhat nervously. His mind was going wild with worry on what Freddy wanted to talk to him about. The first thing Jay's mind jumped to was a love confession. But Jay immediately pushed the thought out of his mind. That was the dumbest thought he had ever had. There was no way that's what was going on. Freddy didn't like him, they had barely even gotten to know each other anyways. Jay frowned a bit. Could a robot and human even be together? Was that something that was accepted? AI was everywhere nowadays because of an amazing breakthrough in the field of robotics roughly 18 years ago.  
Finally pulled out of his thoughts Jay realized he had been hovering in front of the entrance to the Funtime Auditorium. Jay took a deep breath and calmed himself down. Knowing Freddy he would probably jump on him the second he entered the room. Jay opened the hatch and emerged in the pitch black room on the other side. He wiped his dusty hands on his work pants and listened to the silence. No movement so far. Jay got out his phone and turned on the flashlight function.  
"Foxy are you there? It's me Jay, just letting you know I'm here. How is everything?" Jay called out. It was quiet for a moment. Then Jay could hear the faint sound of footsteps coming from up ahead, they quickly got louder. Jay squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself. The giant bear came sprinting out of the dark and threw himself onto Jay, picking him up and twirling around in a circle happily.  
"JAAAAAAAYYYY!!!" Freddy squealed. Jay was pretty sure he wasn't going to get used to this. Having a big metal bear charging at him from out of the dark was still going to be unsettling no matter how many times Freddy hugged him.  
"Hi Freddy." Jay mumbled, the sound of his voice muffled from his face being pressed into Freddy's chest. Freddy put Jay down the ground and dusted him off.  
"You'll never guess what amazing thing happened today!" Freddy said excitedly. Jay got his bearings again and looked up at Freddy, both him and Bon-Bon were a complete mess. Cake frosting, bits of leftover food, and glitter covered the two animatronics' once clean shiny bodies from head to toe. Confetti stuck to their bodies via a mysterious sticky substance and they had been doodled on with colorful markers.  
"What in the world happened to you two?" Jay asked in disbelief.  
"You're gonna have to guess!" Bon-Bon chirped. Jay pouted and looked Freddy up and down as he thought to himself. Freddy looked like he was about to burst from how excited he was.  
"I don't know did you-"  
"WE WENT TO A BIRTHDAY PARTY TODAY!!" Freddy interrupted excitedly.  
"Thanks to you repairing Freddy we got rented out." Bon-Bon said.  
"For the first time in years! It was the best day ever, we had so much fun it was the greatest!" Freddy said with a wide grin. Jay laughed.  
"Wow, good for you! You certainly look like you had a great time." He said, eyeing the party streamers that were wrapped around his ears and seemingly stuffed in the holes where his arms connected to his body. They were both a mess and Jay supposed he was going to have to clean them. But Jay was a little unsure, that felt kind of weird to him. Though he didn't have much choice as HandUnit chimed in.  
"Funtime Freddy had a very big day full of fun and excitement. Your duties tonight will be to clean Funtime Freddy and the Bonnie hand puppet so that they are ready for another day of fun tomorrow." HandUnit said.  
"Well, guess you can tell me all about your day while I uh... clean you up." Jay said awkwardly.  
"Ok!" Freddy replied. Freddy quickly took Jay's hand in his and pulled him through the dark to Parts and Services. Jay tried not to think too hard about Freddy holding his hand. Meanwhile, Freddy went on about his and Bon-Bon's day at the birthday party, sparing no detail as they walked to the maintenance room.

"And I was a little worried because I've gotten a little rusty making balloon animals but the kids loved them!" Funtime Freddy chatted happily.  
"I told him it would be fine but he was still scared of disappointing the kids." Bon-Bon giggled.  
"Aww no kidding? I didn't know you could make balloon animals." Jay said. Freddy's eyes grew wide and they sparkled.  
"I could make you one! I can make anything you like." He gasped. Jay cracked a smile.  
"Uh, sure? But let's clean you up first." He said. Freddy nodded and sat down in the metal chair from the previous night and waited patiently. Jay put his backpack down on the workbench and headed to the closet in the back of the room. If Jay was going to clean Freddy and Bon-Bon he was going to need some water and cleaning fluid first. He hadn't seen any cleaning products anywhere in the whole place so far but there had to be some in his closet. It was in the maintenance room so there had to be something. Jay rattled the doors handle and tried to push it open but the door refused to budge. Jay frowned. The handle turned so the door wasn't locked. Jay slammed his side into the door and the door gave way. The door gave an ungodly creak, like Jay was stepping into a crypt that hadn't been opened in a hundred years. Jay flicked on a light next to the door frame and to his surprise a dim florescent bulb sputtered to life above him. Finally, at least something in this place worked correctly and he didn't have to wander around in the dark anymore. Jay took at step inside but was immediately repelled by the foul smell of mold.  
"Jesus Christ." He hissed. Jay covered his nose and mouth.  
"Is everything ok?" Freddy asked. He got up from his chair and came over to investigate.  
"Its fine... it's just this room is filled with mold. It smells like something died in here." Jay said. Freddy became nervous.  
"U-um maybe you shouldn't go in there. It might be dangerous for you." He mumbled.  
"Yeah, isn't mold bad for humans?" Bon-Bon added. Jay loosened his tie and buttoned up his collar so he could pull it up over his nose. It wasn't much but it should help protect him a little.  
"I should be ok, its not like it'll kill me instantly." Jay said. Jay leaned into the room and took a look around to see if he could spot what he needed before he went inside. The room was small and cluttered with old cleaning supplies which looked like it hadn't been disturbed in years. And Jay found out where the dripping sound was coming from. The faucet above the floor-set mop sink was broken and had a continuous stream of water leaking out. Just another thing for him to fix later. Dead bugs littered the floor and crunched under Jay's boots as he stepped further into the room. Jay grabbed some things he needed and handed them over to Freddy so he could get a bucket of water going. Jay turned on the water but nothing came out for a moment. The faucet coughed and dark brown rancid water started flowing. Jay recoiled from the smell and had to back out of the room. He had never smelled something so disgusting before. Jay coughed and pulled his collar down once he was away from the closet to get some air. The stench from that room made the stale air of the rest of the place feel like a fresh clean breeze.   
"A-are you ok?" Freddy questioned worriedly. Jay waved his hand dismissively.  
"I'm good just give me a second." He huffed.  
"Maybe I should do this for you." Freddy suggested.  
"Nuh-uh, I don't want you to get more dirty. Let me handle it." Jay said sternly. Freddy backed off from the closet and pouted. Bon-Bon peered inside.  
"The water is running clear now." They said. Jay straightened up again, he didn't bother pulling up his collar and stepped into the janitor closet to quickly fill up the metal bucket with water. Jay carried the heavy bucket out and placed it nearby. He had Freddy move closer to the janitor closet so that he could get some light make this whole thing a lot easier, he didn't want to miss any spots. Freddy sat down and waited while Jay poured a small bit of cleaning fluid into the water bucket.  
"So, tell me more about your day." Jay prompted.  
"Hmm? Oh right!" Freddy smiled. Freddy went on about his time at the birthday party, repeating a lot of the same things he already told Jay while Jay got to work pulling the streamers from the animatronic's joints. But he didn't mind, it was nice seeing Freddy and Bon-Bon so happy.  
"I told so many jokes yesterday. I came up with a lot new ones thanks to all that time we were stuck in the breaker room and they were a hit!" Freddy said.  
"I still think you need new material. Those puns were terrible." Bon-Bon muttered.  
"The kids thought I was hilarious!" Freddy countered.  
"Hey I'll be the judge of terrible puns." Jay spoke up. "Tell me one." He said. Freddy grinned widely in excitement.  
"Ok, what do you do with chemists when they die?" He asked.  
"Oh no." Bon-Bon said.  
"What?" Jay replied.  
"Barium!"   
Jay gave a wide grin before snorting and laughing loudly. Freddy's eyes grew wide and sparkly at the sound of Jay's laughter, he blushed brightly.  
"Hey that's a good one!" He said. Bon-Bon stared in utter disbelief as Jay caught his breath.  
"You've got to be joking." They said flatly.  
"See I told you!" Freddy grinned in triumph. Bon-Bon rolled their eyes. Jay chuckled and recomposed himself, he rolled up his sleeves and dunked a wash cloth into the warm soapy water and began scrubbing away at a big blotch of paint on Freddy's belly.  
"Hope you're not ticklish." Jay said. Freddy was quiet for a bit. Jay's bright happy laugh kept echoing in his mind which was making him a little flustered.  
"I... I haven't heard you laugh before. I really like hearing you laugh." Freddy stated quietly. He hadn't heard laughter in a long time, well, that wasn't exactly true. Just today Freddy had heard tons of laughter from the children he had been entertaining. It had been amazing and made him feel alive again. But for some reason Jay's laugh was different. It filled him with a warm fuzzy feeling deep down.  
"Ah well, haven't had much to laugh about the past week or so." Jay replied. Freddy and Bon-Bon blinked curiously.  
"Why is that? Haven't you only been working here for four days?" Bon-Bon asked. Jay paused and avoided Freddy's eyes for a moment, focusing on scrubbing rock hard frosting from the bear's arm.  
"It's nothing." He said. Freddy frowned worriedly.  
"If it's about us scaring you before we're really sorry." He said. Jay chuckled.  
"I mean, I'm not gonna lie. The first few days of this job really did stress me out but hey, there's nothing to worry about now. Past is the past." He answered with a smile. Though Jay had forgiven him Freddy still felt guilty. The past was the past. But he had no idea what the animatronics were planning to do to him. What Freddy was going to have to do.  
After a while Freddy went silent, simply watching Jay as he worked, a deep fondness in his eyes. Jay grew bashful with Freddy staring at him but remained quiet and tried to ignore it.   
Most of Freddy was now clean. Bon-Bon was the easiest to clean because they were so small and had suffered the least in terms of food mess. The only place Jay hadn't touched yet was Freddy's face. Cake and frosting was smeared all over his cheeks and a kid had doodled with marker on the bear's face, giving him a humorous mustache and eyelashes. It was kind of cute. Jay stood back for a moment to look Freddy over to see if he missed anything before moving on.  
"Stand up for a second." Jay said. Freddy stood up and Jay circled him looking for any left over gunk. Jay checked thoroughly, he wanted to do a good job. Freddy began to blush nervously as Jay lifted his arm and examined it closely. Finally Jay seemed satisfied with his work. He glanced at the water bucket. It was pretty dirty now because of all the dissolved frosting and sugar.  
"I'm gonna change the water." Jay said. Jay took the bucket into the janitors closet and dumped the dirty water in the floor-set mop sink. The smell of mold wasn't so bad now that the room had aired out a little.  
Jay came back with the bucket filled with clean hot water and set it down next to the big animatronic bear. Jay dunked the rag in the bucket and rang it out. He straightened up and got on the tips of his toes in a weak attempt to reach Freddy's face with the wet cloth, but the bear was too tall. A small smirk curled Freddy's mouth at the cute pout Jay got on his face when he realized he was too short. Jay turned and looked around for something to stand on.  
"Here, let me help." Freddy cooed. He quickly scooped Jay up with his free arm, so that he was sitting on his arm and held him up with ease. Jay wobbled and grabbed onto Freddy's shoulders so he wouldn't fall backwards. He blushed.  
"Uh thanks... but you could have just leaned down." Jay muttered. Freddy simply shrugged and smiled. Jay carefully washed Freddy's cheeks of the pieces of cake and thick layer of frosting, there was even some glitter mixed in. "Close your eyes." Jay instructed. Freddy did as Jay asked and closed his eyes.  
"Mm-hmm." Freddy hummed. Despite Freddy's attempt to remain casual he began to get a little nervous as he could feel Jay get closer to his face. Jay gingerly scrubbed with one finger wrapped in the cloth at the marks around Freddy's eye. Luckily it was washable marker. Jay washed Freddy's face until it was shiny and free of mess.  
"There you're all clean!" Jay said proudly.  
"Thanks Jay." Freddy smiled. Jay leaned forward just a bit to examine Freddy closely to make sure that he didn't miss any spots. But Freddy caught Jay's eye, he was staring intently at him. Jay and Funtime Freddy gazed into each other's eyes curiously for a long moment. Freddy moved in closer. Bon-Bon glanced at the two in confusion and awkwardly cleared their throat to get their attention, snapping both Jay and Freddy from their weird trance. Jay looked over to the blue bunny. Bon-Bon pointed to a small patch of icing on their cheek.  
"Oh, sorry Bon-Bon." Jay said. Freddy brought Bon-Bon a little closer so Jay didn't have to lean too far. Using his short nails, Jay chipped away at the majority of the hardened icing and wiped the rest off with the wash cloth. Freddy lowered Jay down to the ground and Jay stood back, scanning the animatronics up and down with his curled finger thoughtfully on his chin. "Hmm..." He hummed. Jay noticed that Freddy's bow tie was crooked and took a step forward to readjust it. Freddy's cheeks flushed pink as Jay got on the tips of his toes to reach up and fix his bow tie for him. Jay stuck out his tongue cutely in concentration. It felt like there was butterflies, or maybe moths, fluttering around in Freddy's chest cavity and he suddenly felt bold. Freddy reached down and gently caressed Jay's cheek with his knuckles. Jay flinched slightly at the contact and stared up at the bear with wide confused eyes.  
"Y'know, out of all the people to have taken this job I'm glad it was you." Freddy said warmly. Jay's heart began to speed up but he tried to keep a cool disposition, though it was obvious that he was surprised by Freddy's genuine words. Jay couldn't help but blush.  
"U-Uhh... thanks? Or... uh, you're welcome?" He muttered bashfully. Jay quickly backed away, suddenly very aware of how close he and Freddy were. Jay scratched the back of his neck awkwardly while glancing around the room and at the ceiling, hoping HandUnit would interrupt and tell him what to do next to give him an excuse to leave. Instead of HandUnit speaking up the door creaked open and Foxy timidly entered Parts and Services, only poking his head through a crack in the doorway.  
"Um... excuse me? Your name was Jay right? C-could you help me with something?" Foxy asked nervously.  
"Oh! Sure thing, I'll be right there." Jay replied. Jay gave Freddy and Bon-Bon a slight nod before running off to join Foxy. Freddy watched as Jay left and sighed quietly to himself. Bon-Bon eyed Freddy curiously.  
"What's going on with you?" They asked bluntly.  
"H-Huh? Nothing, I just had such a wonderful day and it was all because of Jay so I'm really grateful!" Freddy explained. Before Bon-Bon could ask any more questions Freddy quickly left Parts and Services to catch up with Jay and Foxy.

Just a little ways outside of Parts and Services Freddy found Jay holding his phone above Foxy's limp right arm and examining it thoughtfully. Freddy opened his mouth to ask what had happened but Jay suddenly cut him off.  
"Stay right here ok, I'll be right back." Jay said to Foxy. Jay quickly ran past Freddy back into Parts and Services. Freddy walked over to Foxy.  
"What happened?" He asked.  
"I-I don't know. All of a sudden my arm just went limp and I can't move it any more. I think it broke." Foxy said.  
"But how did it break?" Bon-Bon piped up quizzically.  
"I don't know! It must have happened when I was at that birthday party yesterday and it just gave out now." Foxy replied. Freddy could recognize the panic and fear deep in Foxy's eyes. He clutched his broken arm anxiously.  
"Don't worry! Jay will fix you, there's nothing to worry about!" Freddy said soothingly, he put his hand on Foxy's shoulder comfortingly. The pink and white fox looked up to Freddy, he seemed unsure and turned his gaze back to the floor again.  
"I sure hope so." Foxy muttered quietly. Soon, Jay returned from Parts and Services with a book tucked under his arm. Jay opened up the animatronic manual, he flipped through until he came to the section on Funtime Foxy. Jay couldn't see any damage to the costume shell, no cracks or holes indicating that the cause of the problem was physical. It must be internal and due to disrepair. This wasn't very surprising to Jay. From the current state of all the animatronics he could tell they hadn't been maintained at all. Jay really wondered why. How long had the animatronics gone without anyone to look after them?  
"Hmm... I'm probably going to have to remove the shell on your arm in order to better see what happened and to fix it properly." Jay mused. Foxy's eyes grew wide with fear and he jumped back, away from Jay.  
"What does that mean!? A-Are you going to scoop me!?" He growled. Freddy immediately jumped to Jay's defense and got between the two as Foxy bared his sharp fangs threateningly.  
"No, no, Foxy! Jay would never scoop us! Right Jay?" Freddy piped up.  
"Scoop? What is that?" Jay asked in alarm. Both Foxy, Freddy, and Bon-Bon clammed up nervously and avoided Jay's eyes. This sounded like a sore subject. Jay's brows furrowed sadly and he sighed. "It's going to be ok. What ever it is I'm not going to do it to you." He reassured gently. Foxy relaxed slightly but still seemed nervous. "I'm sure there's a way to get it off without 'scooping' or whatever." Jay went on. Jay carefully approached the animatronic fox, putting his hands up to show he meant no harm. Freddy stuck close to Jay just in case. Foxy hesitated for a moment but timidly held up his broken arm to Jay so he could get another look. Jay ran his finger down the seam of the shell on Foxy's forearm. Jay handed his phone off to Bon-Bon so he could freely use both hands. Jay stuck his finger in the small space of Foxy's wrist where there was no shell and tugged gently.  
"Did you feel that?" Jay questioned. Foxy shook his head. "Ok, so you're probably not going to feel anything since your arm isn't working." Jay said with a small smile. Jay focused again and pulled as hard as he could to see if he could pull the shell apart. The pressure pinched his fingers. Though Jay had small hands and fingers there still wasn't much room to get a good grip.  
"I can help." Freddy offered. Jay looked up to Freddy gratefully.  
"Ok, you pull on this side." He instructed. Freddy nodded and carefully gripped Foxy's shell.  
"Please be careful." Foxy muttered.  
"Don't worry, we will." Jay reassured. Freddy's hands were much bigger than Jay's and there was not much room left, but Jay managed with only his fingertips. "Ok, pull on 3. 1, 2, 3!" He said. At the same time Jay and Freddy pulled at the shell piece. It stretched after a second and finally gave way, splitting down the seam and popping open. Foxy stared in amazement for a moment.  
"You did it!" He exclaimed.  
"Alright let's take a look and see what's causing the problem." Jay said. Jay leaned in a bit and noticed that some of the cables making up Foxy's arm were worn down and frayed, without all the coils functioning together properly the arm ceased work all together. Jay bent down to pick up the manual but before he could Freddy quickly snatched it and held it up for Jay courteously. Jay blinked. "Oh thank you." He said. Foxy raised a brow quizzically as Freddy smiled warmly at Jay. Jay compared the damage coils and diagram in the book. According to the book it wouldn't be too difficult to repair.  
"Hmm... I wonder how this happened. Maybe it was just wore down over time." Jay mused to himself.  
"I don't know how it happened. I was fine yesterday. But... they did scoop me yesterday too." Foxy answered quietly. Jay didn't want to step on a landmine but he was curious.  
"What is this 'scooping' you keep talking about?" He asked. Foxy, Bon-Bon, and Freddy all exchanged a nervous glance. They were quiet until Freddy daringly spoke up.  
"W-well... there's this big machine and it scoops our innards out of our shells so that we can be repaired." The bear said, a memory flashed in his eyes and Jay furrowed his brows sadly.  
"It hurts. A lot." Foxy said bitterly.  
"That's terrible. I'm so sorry that you have to go through that." Jay frowned.  
"But with Jay looking after us so well now we won't have to be scooped for a while!" Bon-Bon chimed in. Foxy perked up.  
"That's right!" He said. Jay smiled and chuckled a little.  
"I'm glad I can help in any way." He replied. "As long as I'm around I won't let you get scooped. I'll take care of you." Jay nodded firmly. Freddy, Bon-Bon, and Foxy all smiled happily, they seemed hopeful for the first time in forever. A part of Jay felt bad for saying such a thing and getting the animatronics hopes up, he was going to have to leave eventually so his own words felt hollow. But if it made them feel better, even in the moment, maybe it was worth it.  
"Well anyway, I need to replace this cable in your arm Foxy. It'll be a quick fix so just follow me." Jay nodded to Parts and Services. Jay took back his phone and the manual from Freddy and Bon-Bon and led Foxy away to the maintenance room. Freddy stayed behind and was left alone. Freddy honestly didn't like Parts and Services because that's where the conveyor belt that lead to the scooper was. When he was with Jay it was different, he could tolerate being there if Jay was with him. Everything was quiet while Freddy and Bon-Bon waited.  
"Freddy, we need to talk." Baby said quietly. Freddy jumped a bit and turned to see Baby stepping out from the shadows.  
"O-oh, hiya Baby. How long have you been standing there?" He asked.  
"Not long. But there are more pressing matters. Have you befriended Jay?" Baby questioned. Freddy started to become nervous and his heart sunk, he knew where this conversation was heading.  
"W-well... I guess you could say that." He muttered. Baby smiled.  
"Perfect. Now you must lure him to the scooping room, it should be easy now." She said.  
"N-No! I... I need more time! Please give me a little longer Baby!" Freddy begged. Baby frowned, her piercing green eyes bore right through Freddy. Just from her silent stare Freddy shrunk back nervously.  
"No. Jay already trusts you enough so there is nothing standing in your way." Baby said firmly. Baby took a deep breath and her face softened, she gave the bear a sympathetic smile and walked over to Freddy. Baby put her hand on Freddy's shoulder to comfort him.  
"I know you don't like hurting people, I don't either. But this is something that needs to be done for us to be free." She said. Freddy looked down to the floor sadly. "Jay won't feel any pain. It'll be over before he even knows what's happening." Baby reassured. Freddy looked wide eyed into Baby's eyes uncertainly.  
"Really?" He said.  
"Yeah! It probably won't hurt him at all. And who knows, maybe he'll be ok and won't die at all!" Bon-Bon piped up cheerfully.   
"See Freddy, even Bon-Bon thinks we should go through with it." Baby said. Freddy went quiet. Despite all this friends telling him it would be alright and that Jay wouldn't suffer he couldn't bring himself to believe it. Jay would die. He knew it. How could he do that to someone who had done nothing but help them and was kind to them when no one else had been? Freddy frowned angrily and gritted his teeth.  
"NO!! I won't do it!" He snapped. Both Baby and Bon-Bon looked completely taken aback by Freddy's sudden outburst.  
"Freddy, we only have two nights until Jay leaves for good. We have no choice!" Baby argued.  
"I don't care! I won't do it!" Freddy growled. Baby's soft expression disappeared and she became distant and unforgiving.  
"Freddy... do WANT to be scooped again?" She asked coldly. Freddy winced at the word, though he tried to remain strong the thought terrified him and overpowered his will. He backed down.  
"Don't say things like that Baby, you know how he feels about it!" Bon-Bon retorted angrily.  
"I'm sorry but do you really expect Jay to stay here forever and keep us repaired?" Baby questioned. Freddy looked away and avoided Baby's eyes sadly.  
"No..." Freddy replied quietly.  
"Jay leaves in two days. On his last day you will scoop him and we will all escape together just like planned. It's either that or we continue to rot down here until we fall into disrepair again." Baby said firmly. Baby turned and disappeared into the darkness. Leaving Freddy and Bon-Bon by themselves. As soon as Baby was gone oily tears began to well up in Freddy's eyes. He was terrified and he didn't know what to do. Could he really sacrifice all of his friend's freedom for just one human?  
Bon-Bon put their paw on Freddy's cheek and hugged the side of his face comfortingly.  
"It's alright... everything's going to be alright." They said soothingly. "You won't have to do it alone! I'll be right here with you." Bon-Bon said. Though Bon-Bon tried to cheer him up, Freddy didn't feel any better.

Foxy sat down in folding metal chair and nervously twiddled his thumbs while Jay grabbed a few things at the work bench. Jay dragged a large box filled with coils of metal wiring towards Foxy.  
"Ok, I'm going to have to take off the shell on your upper arm to replace the broken cable." Jay said. Foxy nodded but he still looked scared. Jay glanced around the room. He honestly thought Freddy would have followed him into Parts and Services to help, since he seemed to stick to him like glue ever since they met. Jay shrugged, he would manage by himself. He always had. Jay noticed the nervous expression on Foxy's face and smiled reassuringly. "Hey, don't worry this won't hurt at all. But if you want I can deactivate you until I'm done." He offered. Foxy blinked in surprise.  
"Really?" He said.  
"Yeah of course." Jay replied. Foxy thought for a brief moment.   
"You will reactivate me when you're done right?" He asked timidly. There was a pang of sadness in Jay's heart at Foxy's words. Freddy had said almost exactly the same thing to him the other night. It tore Jay up a little inside imagining what the animatronics went through to become so fearful of humans like this.  
"Yes, I will. You have nothing to worry about." Jay said gently. Foxy didn't seem completely convinced but he swallowed dryly and nodded.  
"I'm ready. Let's get this over with." He said. Foxy opened their chest plate for Jay, revealing their endoskeleton and the power module attached to it. Jay looked Foxy in the eyes.  
"This will only take a second. When you wake up next you'll be good as new." He said. Foxy was silent as Jay reached into his chest and plucked the button sized power model out. Foxy went rigid and his eyes closed, as if he was asleep. Jay sat back for a moment and took a deep breath. He couldn't mess this up. He grabbed the animatronic manual and flipped to the section on Funtime Foxy, if he followed the instructions word for word everything would be ok. As Jay read through the repair sequence he noticed something strange with the wording of the manual. The manual referred to Foxy using she/her pronouns but all the other animatronics used he/him for Foxy instead.  
"Hmm... the lore in the book must be out of date." Jay said to himself. Jay put the book down on the floor and got to work on prying off the shell on Foxy's upper arm. If he was going to replace the cable he was going to need to be able to connect it to the port mechanism on the shoulder. Jay wedged his hands into the open area at the top of the shell where the upper arm met the shoulder. It wasn't as small as the forearm so Jay could actually get a good grip this time. Jay tried to pull the pieces apart with all his might. It took a couple of tries but he was finally able to pull the shell off the endoskeleton. The shell snapped open with a loud plastic snap, Jay sighed. By following the books instructions Jay took a length of cable from the coil and attached both ends to the joint at the wrist and the shoulder. As soon as the metal cable was connected to both ends it wriggled as if alive and shrunk until it fit perfectly into place. Jay grimaced slightly. He really wondered who designed these animatronics. Jay picked up the shell pieces of Foxy's arm and put them back on. Though he probably didn't need to, Jay replaced Foxy's old power module with a new one.  
It took a moment but soon the power module flashed red and Foxy's chest plate closed. Foxy's eyes opened and he stood straight up immediately which made Jay jump and take a half step back.  
"Hey Foxy, you're all fixed!" Jay announced. Jay put his arms out in a grand gesture to get Foxy's attention but the fox stared past him. Freddy did the same thing when he had repaired him the first time. It could be by introducing a new power module it took a few moments for the animatronics to accept it and for their sensors to reorient them after being deactivated. Jay honestly didn't really know. It was a best guess as anything else. Foxy blinked and seemed to regain his senses. His eyes went immediately to his right arm and he tested the waters by carefully moving his fingers. A large grin formed on Foxy's face, his fangs poking out of his mouth, as he moved his arm around happily.  
"I'm... I'm fixed!" He exclaimed. Foxy glanced over to Jay who was smiling happily at him. "Thanks." He said genuinely.  
"Of course, it was no problem. If you need any help with anything else you can come right to me." Jay said. Foxy nodded and the two left Parts and Services together. Foxy went back to his stage and when Jay gazed into the darkness of Funtime Auditorium he put his hand in his pocket to grab his phone. Shining the light around he didn't see Freddy and Bon-Bon anywhere. Jay wondered briefly where they went off to but shrugged to himself.  
"Well done on completing your nightly duties, you are free to leave for the night. Please exit the building through Funtime Auditorium and we'll see you back here tomorrow." HandUnit said. Jay checked the time on his phone. It had only been an hour since he arrived.  
"Eh, I'll hang out here for another hour and start cleaning I guess." Jay shrugged. There was no response from HandUnit. Jay turned around and went back into Parts and Services to the maintenance supply closet. He emptied the bucket he had been using to clean off Freddy and refilled it with hot water. Grabbing a mop and broom Jay carried his supplies out of the closet to begin cleaning. Cleaning in the dark was probably a stupid and fruitless endeavour but he had already checked the closet for spare light bulbs but came up with nothing. Jay didn't really want to spend the meager amount of money he had on fixing the lights from his workplace when he wasn't going to be staying for very long. He would do what he could for the time being, sweeping up and moping Parts and Services would be a lot easier because of the light from the closet, the rest of the place would be a lot more difficult but he would figure something out. Jay swept up loads of dust and dirt quietly. There was loads of it on the floor. It would take hours to do the entire floor with a small broom so Jay opted for the largest flat mop in the closet. By the time he had swept up most of the dirt on the floor so that it was ready enough to mop an hour and a half had passed. Jay sighed and wiped the sweat from his brow.  
"That's enough work for today. Time to head home." He said to himself. Jay gathered up his things in his backpack and made the short trek to the primary control module. As Jay got closer to the vent entrance he heard the faint sound of someone crying coming from the other end. Jay quickly got down on the his knees and crawled inside to investigate. When Jay emerged into the primary control module he saw Freddy sitting on the floor with his knees drawn up to his chest, bawling his eyes out. Bon-Bon was doing their best to calm him down but wasn't having any luck soothing him. Jay scrambled to his feet, the vent door slammed shut behind him, making both Freddy and Bon-Bon look up in surprise.  
"Freddy? W-what's the matter?" Jay sputtered nervously. Freddy wiped his eyes with his hand and sniffled quickly.  
"I-I-I'm fine! It's nothing!" He lied shakily. Though Freddy tried to wipe away his tears more black oily globs continued to stream down his cheeks, he couldn't stop crying no matter how hard he tried. Freddy smiled at Jay through his tears but it didn't seem to convince him. Jay came over and kneeled by Freddy's side. He didn't really know what to do, he wasn't the best at comforting others. Jay leaned his head on Freddy's arm.  
"Hey, it'll be ok. You can talk to me if you want to." He said. Freddy hiccuped and began to cry more.  
"Y-You're going to d-disappear in a few days... I-I don't want to say goodbye!!" He blubbered.  
"I-It's ok Freddy! It's ok! It won't be so bad after its over and done with it'll be... it will..." Bon-Bon trailed off as their lip quivered and tears began to fill their eyes. "Oh! Who am I kidding!? This is terrible!" They cried. Freddy and Bon-Bon held each other as they began to cry together. Jay was so confused. What in the world had brought this on? They were both fine an hour ago.  
"Guy, guys, it's going to be ok! C'mon stop crying, I can't help unless you tell me what's wrong." Jay said.  
"W-We're going to miss... miss you so much when you're gone. You were so nice to us!" Bon-Bon sobbed. Then the pieces started clicking together in Jay's mind. Jay put his hand on his head and let out a breathy laugh of relief. The animatronics probably didn't know he had received an extra week of work and still thought he was leaving at the end of this week. Jay was honestly really touched that Freddy and Bon-Bon would miss him so much.  
"Guys calm down its ok, I'm not leaving on Friday. I got an extra week of work because I repaired Freddy so I'm staying for a bit longer." He explained. Freddy and Bon-Bon sniffled and stopped their crying, their faces slick with oil.  
"R-Really?" Freddy spoke up.  
"Yeah HandUnit told me when I got here." Jay replied. It took an extra moment for Freddy to process the information and realize what it meant. In an instant Freddy jumped on Jay and locked him in a tight hug. Jay cringed slightly when he felt slimy oil against his cheeks from the tears on Freddy and Bon-Bon's faces as they squished him between them. Jay put his arms around Freddy as the their sobs died down. He laughed a little and patted the bear on the back.  
"I'm flattered you guys, I didn't think you would miss me that much." Jay said. Freddy and Bon-Bon released Jay.  
"Of course we would miss you!" Freddy replied.  
"But now we have a whole week to just have fun together!" Bon-Bon said cheerily. Though they now had more time Freddy knew in the back of his mind it was just delaying the inevitable. Maybe he would give a half-hearted attempt to lure Jay to the scooping room, just to say he tried so Baby wouldn't be angry at him.   
Jay wiped the oil from his face onto his sleeve and got up, he dusted his pants off. He really needed to sweep up the primary control module. But he would have to do that tomorrow night.  
"Hey um... Jay?" Freddy spoke up timidly.  
"Yeah?" Jay replied. The bear fiddled with his fingers nervously, he really hoped Jay would refuse to go with him.  
"Can you come with me really quick? I want to show you something." Freddy said. Bon-Bon glanced at Freddy, looking surprised for a second. Jay scratched the back of his neck, he cast a glance towards the vent that lead to the elevator.  
"Uh well, I'm kinda heading home now Freddy. Is it important?" Jay questioned. Freddy quickly waved his hand and shook his head.  
"It's fine, it's nothing. Have a good night!" He said sweetly. "I'm going to tell the others the good news!" Freddy smiled happily. He turned and disappeared through the vent leading to Funtime Auditorium. Jay cracked a small smile and left for the night.

Freddy carefully felt his way through the dark as he crept through Funtime Auditorium. He didn't understand how Baby could be anywhere near the scooping room without fear let alone be willing to control the scooper. If it was him he wouldn't be able to do it. Freddy was trying to be careful not to accidentally enter the wrong door in the dark. He was scared of both Baby and the scooper, so he was taking his time getting there.  
Baby was in the scooper control room prepping the machine for tomorrow night, making sure everything was working properly so that nothing went wrong. Freddy found the door and knocked on it gently. It was quiet for a second before he heard faint footsteps. Baby opened the door and looked at Freddy silently.  
"Hiya Baby, you won't guess what Jay just told me!" Freddy began. He paused for a reaction but Baby just stared at him. "W-Well Jay just told me that because he repaired me yesterday that he was given another week of work. We have more time!" Freddy announced excitedly. Baby put her finger under her chin looking thoughtful for a moment.  
"Hmm... it would be troublesome if someone noticed he disappeared after a week. Someone could come looking for him." She said.  
"That's true, maybe we should wait until the end of the second week." Bon-Bon added.  
"But we will be long gone before anyone notices. We don't need anymore time." Baby mused. Freddy's heart sank and his smile disappeared.  
"B-But we don't have to do it right away! Can't we wait just a little longer?" He asked hopefully. Baby sighed heavily and put her hand on her head. She didn't seem angry, but tired.  
"Freddy we've already been over this. You can't keep stalling like this." Baby frowned.  
"I'm not stalling... I-I tried luring him to the scooping room like you said but he refused and left for the night. I don't think he trusts me completely." Freddy lied. It wasn't a total lie. He had tried, albeit it was a weak attempt, but he still did it.  
"I see." Baby replied quietly. Baby took a moment to think over their options before she made a decision on Jay's fate. Freddy waited anxiously, praying that his lie was enough to fool her. After what left like an eternity Baby finally nodded.  
"Very well. You have another week to gain Jay's trust Freddy. But I warn you, don't get attached." Baby said. Freddy left relief flood his entire system. Jay was safe for another week.  
"I-I promise I won't. Thank you Baby!" He said gratefully. Baby cracked a tired smile and put her hand on Freddy's shoulder.  
"I'm just saying this because I know you're the gentle type Freddy. It would end up hurting you more if you got too attached." She explained.  
"I know." Freddy sighed.  
"Hey Freddy, let's go tell the others the good news!" Bon-Bon spoke up.  
"Alright!" Freddy replied happily. Freddy turned and excitedly went to pester Foxy on his stage. Baby watched Freddy silently, not moving from her spot. Her eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion. Bon-Bon glanced back at Baby from over their shoulder, their eyes met for a brief moment. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOF.... this took way longer than I intended;; Due to a lot of terrible irl events happening one after the other, which I won't get into, resulting in a lot depressive episodes and plain procrastination I had a lot of trouble completing this chapter so sorry about that. The next chapter might also take a while since the outline hasn't been fleshed out all the way and it's really short.  
And btw, I did kinda minimal editing on this chapter cause I just wanted it to GET DONE and post it so if you see any weirdness please ignore it fgjdshhgf


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